


A Strange Kind of Magic

by Theroguetennant



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-21 23:06:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 49,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13751100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theroguetennant/pseuds/Theroguetennant
Summary: Yeojin has never seen magic, but she's always believed. So when she gets a letter informing her of her acceptance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it is the best day of her life. It gets even better when she meets friendly faces on her way to the school. But she'll soon find out that not everything is sunshine and rainbows in the world of magic. Things can be twisted and wrong on any side of the fence. She'll have to rely on her own wits and her new friends in order to make it through the first week, let alone the first year.





	1. Yeojin Gets Sorted

**PLATFORM NINE AND THREE QUARTERS**

Yeojin shivered in the cool September air. The wool uniform she had so eagerly jumped into this morning was far too thin to keep the cold out effectively. I should have worn the coat. She should have done a lot of things, actually, but she hadn’t. She should have told her mom that she was coming out here instead of running off in the middle of the night against her wishes. She should have brought her trunk with her. Instead, she was standing in the middle of a busy train station with little more than the clothes on her back, at the very edge of a precipice that would send her tumbling down into a whole new world.

She still remembered the day Professor McGonagall had appeared-- almost literally appeared-- on her front doorstep with a very special letter in her hand and an even more crucial message. She was a witch. She could use magic to change the world around her. Her parents couldn’t but she could. She had always thought magic was real, but to see it used in front of her--to use it herself--was something else entirely. She jumped at the chance to attend the school, to learn more about it, about herself, and become what she was meant to be.

Her parents had been rather more split on the issue. Her dad was amazed and eager to explore this new side of the world with her, but her mother was dismayed. She didn’t want to send her only daughter off to some crazy school for an entire year, only seeing her on holidays and summer break. She said she didn’t even believe in magic, which was pretty unbelievable considering she had just witnessed it in action. Yeojin’s dad had argued for a while about her getting a proper education and becoming the best her she could be--standard stuff for him. Yeojin thought he was a pretty good dad. She’d felt bad she hadn’t even written him a letter when she left to go to Platform Nine and Three Quarters at King’s Cross. He’d taken her to Diagon Alley against her mother’s wishes, and they’d had a nice time shopping for necessities and not-so necessities, like chocolate frogs. Those little hopping pieces of confectionary always put a smile on her face.

The warm memories only emphasized how cold and alone she actually was. She pulled the small briefcase she had brought with her tighter to her chest. Inside it was her wand, a change of clothes, and a couple of her books. She hoped the school would be able to supply a couple of hand me downs, because otherwise she was screwed.

She stared at the column that was the entrance to the oddly named Platform Nine and Three Quarters, according to the letter she had received. All she had to do was run at it and she’d be transported to an entirely different platform in an entirely different world. This was the point of no return.

“Hey, you look like you could use a little help!”

The girl’s voice pulled Yeojin out of her head. When Yeojin turned around to face the speaker, she was met with a nice view of her sweater and not much else. She had to tilt her head up to see the taller girl’s face. Her eyes shone with warmth, and her tiny smile made Yeojin want to do the same. Yeojin guessed the girl was more than a couple of years older than her, and probably a witch, too. She had brownish-red hair that reminded Yeojin of a terrier she had seen once at a pet store.

She liked the other girl instantly.

The older girl extended a hand out to greet her. Yeojin shook it, her head tilted in silent awe.

“Hello! My name’s Haseul. You’re going to Hogwarts, right? First-year?”

Yeojin nodded, her eyes big as dinner plates. Her mouth dropped open slightly, a question forming, but Haseul was on the answer before her mind could even produce the words.

“Oh, I can always tell. First-years are always the same. Also, you’re wearing the uniform.” She smiled encouragingly, and then proceeded. “But I’m being rude! I haven’t even given you the chance to introduce yourself, Miss…”

Yeojin looked around furtively, as if there was someone else she could possibly be addressing besides herself. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. She must look like such a dummy, hemming and hawwing as if she had just met her idol instead of just another student at her school. But she couldn’t help it--Haseul was the first witch around her own age who had even tried speaking with her. All of the other witches she had met had either been old or unfriendly….

With undisguised enthusiasm, she rather loudly replied, “I’M YEOJIN! OH MY GOSH YOU’RE SO COOL I’M SO GLAD I MET YOU--” Haseul winced and clapped her hands to her ears, her mouth twisted into a grimace. Yeojin immediately quieted down. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to be so loud, it’s just...thank you for speaking to me.” Oh, that was lame. Yeojin was sure that her cheeks must be as red as tomatoes by now. They certainly burned hard enough.

Haseul gave Yeojin a little thumbs up to show the eleven-year old that she was alright, and then she gave her a reassuring smile. Yeojin realized that was a genuine smile, where most people--and most of her friends from before would have told her to leave or to shut up.

Yeah, she really liked Haseul.

“Nice to meet you, Yeojin.” Haseul rubbed the back of her neck. “You know how to get through to the platform?” Yeojin nodded vigorously, sparing Haseul from her loudness for just a moment more. “Good, lets go, before the muggles notice.” Yeojin just tilted her head again, unsure of what she meant. “Er. That’s the magic word for normal people. Wow, you really are new to all of this, aren’t you?” Yeojin nodded. “Well, that’s okay. Just stick close to me and I’ll show you the ropes. Actually, that’s kind of like my official function--they should hire me as the Hogwarts school greeter!” Yeojin put a hand over her mouth and giggled. With Haseul, she was safe. There was little she was certain of now, but that was one thing she could rely on.

Haseul took Yeojin’s hand in hers. “You ready?”

Yeojin felt she had never been more ready for anything.

“Yeah.” That was about all she could get out.

Haseul gave her a wide smile and then they were running at breakneck speed towards a seemingly solid brick column. Oh no! This is how I’m going to die-- racing along behind a crazy girl because some old lady came to my house and told me I was a witch!

Yeojin squeezed her eyes shut and prepared for the inevitable impact, but it never came. When she opened them, she was looking across at an entirely different world. There were kids dressed in robes and cloaks and all sorts of other things that no normal person had worn in at least five decades. They were pushing carts full of cases stacked higher than themselves. Some had cages with live owls inside. There were adults too, dressed in similar, if slightly more fashionable clothing. Some of them even had pointy little hats, like something out of The Wizard of Oz. Most absurdly of all, there was a steam engine that took up the entire right side of the platform. The thing seemed to stretch on forever, with car after car hooked up to each other. A plate on the front read “THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS”.

So, this was real, and this was really happening. She hadn’t just hallucinated that day with her dad and that old lady really was telling the truth. She was going to go away for almost an entire year to live in a CASTLE! WITH OTHER WITCHES AND WIZARDS! She fought back the urge to squeal, for the sake of her new friend’s eardrums. She did hop up and down in place, though--she just couldn’t help it. Haseul, to her credit, said nothing and continued holding Yeojin’s hand. She didn’t stop to sit and chat with any of the students milling about with their parents--come to think of it, where were Haseul’s parents? She seemed like someone used to dealing with family. Anyway, Haseul made a beeline straight for the Express, as if she was expecting someone to come and stop her, someone she was hoping desperately to avoid.

As it turned out, she was.

A blonde girl, significantly taller than Haseul, stepped out from behind a pillar to block her path. Yeojin’s immediate first impression of the girl is that she was cold and a bit mean. Her first words did nothing to dissuade this impression.

“Figures you’d turn up again, after what you pulled last year.” The girls arms were crossed tightly over the scarlet robes she was wearing--not school standard, but very stylish. Even Yeojin, who cared little for dressing up and knew even less, could see that. Haseul squeezed Yeojin’s hand, very tightly. Haseul didn’t even seem like she was aware that she was still holding her hand.  
“Kim. I’m very sorry about...what happened. But can we just let it go for right now? I’ve got a first year who needs my help.”

Kim’s hard expression did not soften. She looked at Yeojin as if she was scum on the heel of her shoe. Yeojin cringed and buried her head in Haseul’s shoulder. She was afraid that the girl might whip out her wand and curse her right then and there. Instead, Kim just glared at her and then turned her attention back to Haseul.

“You’re gonna hurt her just like you did the last one. You know it, and I know it. You should just give up now.”

Haseul shook her head, a fiercely determined look on her face. “She doesn’t have anyone else, Kim. I’m not going to leave her out to flounder on her own. Not like you did.” At that Kim gasped. She placed a hand over her shoulder as if Haseul had physically wounded her. Her eyebrows furrowed and she backed off, retreating back behind the pillar.

Haseul ran forward, scarcely sparing a second glance to the girl who had stood in her way. But Yeojin never took her eyes off of the blonde. She saw the sadness etched into her features, and for the first time, Yeojin felt a little bad for her.

**THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS**

The inside of the train was as crowded as it had appeared from the outside. Loud children ran between the aisles, little puffs of smoke and color appearing from the ends of their wands. Some were in uniform, some were not. Yeojin had a feeling they all would be by the journey’s end. The older kids had colored scarves- Red and gold, green and silver, yellow and black, blue and bronze. It was wonderful chaos, all told.

Yeojin tugged on Haseul’s sleeves and pointed out the scarves. “What do the colors mean? Are they like football teams?” Haseul surprised by letting out a loud bark of a laugh. “A little bit. Those are house colors. I can tell you a little bit more about them once we’ve had a chance to sit down/”

House colors? Would Yeojin have her own set of house colors eventually? Would she be part of a team? That sounded great to her.

Haseul shoved past the rowdy students and to a cabin with its door ajar. There were a couple of girls already inside, but they moved once they realized Haseul was coming in to join them. Haseul slid into the outermost seat and indicated that Yeojin should do the same on the opposite side of her. Yeojin acquiesced gladly. She crossed her hands over each other on her lap and looked at Haseul expectantly. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the other girls doing the same. Haseul realized this after a few seconds of deep contemplation of her thumbs, and she began introductions immediately.  
“Oh! Sorry! Introductions are in order. This young lady right here is Yeojin! She’s very loud and very new, so let’s all give her a warm welcome!” Haseul clapped loudly. The other girls didn’t. It was awkward. “Okay, so Yeojin, say hello to Heejin. Heejin, say hello to Yeojin!” She waited a few seconds for them to introduce themselves. Heejin gave Yeojin a small wave and a polite smile, but otherwise did not move. Yeojin let out a quiet “Hello”. This wasn’t quite how she’d imagined it. Heejin had long, dark hair, parted evenly in the middle. A small mole near the corner of her eye added charm to her otherwise pallid face. She looked like she never got enough rest.

Haseul nodded firmly, as if the scene in front of her had never happened at all, and then she pointed to another girl. “Hyunjin, why don’t you say hi to Yeojin?” Hyunjin was a little more enthusiastic than her friend. She shook Yeojin’s hand and gave her a genuine smile. She reminded Yeojin of a cat. After they finished, Haseul clapped her hands together and aimed them both at the pink-haired girl who was staring out of the window. “And last but not least, Vivi and Yeojin! I’m sure the two of you would be good friends.” Yeojin, encouraged by Haseul’s words, leapt up to try to reach over Heejin and give Vivi a proper hello. Vivi didn’t move or even seem to respond to the words or the physical contact. After a few moments, Yeojin dropped back into her seat. “Um...is she okay?”

Haseul bit her lip and shook her head. “No. She hasn’t been right since that accident last year.” Accident? Was this what Kim had been referring to at the train station? Yeojin didn’t get a chance to ask before she was jolted forward by a sudden movement. Haseul looked up at the roof of the car and smiled. “Ah, the engine’s started! We’ll be at Hogwarts soon, you’ll see!” The engine began to chug forward at a steady place. Soon, the station beyond the windows was replaced with the verdant landscape of an open field. It was idyllic and peaceful beyond anything Yeojin had ever seen before.

Minutes of silence passed before anyone spoke up again. It was Yeojin, much to her surprise.

“So, about those house colors?”

Haseul’s face lit up with a smile, glad to have something to talk about besides the past year.  
“Yes! Hogwarts has four great houses. Each student is assigned to one of these houses in what’s called a sorting.” So Yeojin had been right before when she thought she was going to be part of one of these teams. Everyone was.

Yeojin leaned forward intently, a smile plastered on her face. This was the exciting stuff. This was why she had left her home in the middle of the night. “So, what are the houses like?”

Haseul sighed and leaned back in her chair, as if she was going to discuss a heavy topic like child abuse or drunk driving. “I think the whole house thing is foolish, if I’m being honest. That’s blasphemy in the halls of Hogwarts, but it’s what I think. It just breeds division and unnecessary rivalry between people who would otherwise be friends. I just don’t believe in it.”

Yeojin raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Um, can you explain, please? I think I’m a little lost.”

Haseul nodded patiently. She stuck one finger up into the air and began to explain. “There’s four houses. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. When you put the Sorting Hat on (yeah, I know) it chooses one of the houses for you based on your character. Gryffindor is for the brave and true, Hufflepuff (that’s me) is for the loyal and hardworking, Ravenclaw for the clever and imaginative, and Slytherin is for the ambitious and cunning. Of course, people don’t come out of molds and someone can fit into more than one of these traits. Friends and family can split over house selection, as if you have any control over what the hat thinks. Most of my friends are in other houses. Just look at us. We’ve got a Slytherin--”She pointed at Heejin,”A Ravenclaw--”She pointed at Hyunjin--”And a Gryffindor!” She pointed out Vivi.

Heejin clapped sarcastically. “Wow, you’re just the queen of inter-house relationships!” Haseul frowned, looking genuinely hurt.

“That’s not very nice, Heekki. I’m trying to show her around.” Heejin threw a hand in front of her face dismissively. “You always are, Haseul. Maybe you should just give up. You haven’t been too useful recently.” Yeojin thought that was a remarkably harsh thing to say to someone that was supposedly your friend. She wondered what house Ms. Kim was in. She thought it was probably Slytherin, judging by the way Heejin was acting. Yeojin really didn’t want to end up there. Unfriendliness always got her down.

Heejin rolled her eyes and leaned on Vivi, who still had not responded to any of the conversation. Hyunjin smiled sheepishly and shrugged. “Sorry about Heejin. She’s really a nice girl, but she’s been under a lot of pressure.” Her eyes turned dark as she looked down to the floor. “We both have.” She suddenly turned up, a lot cheerier. “But Ravenclaw would be glad to have you!”

Haseul nodded. “We all would, I think. You seem like a really great person.” Yeojin’s face burst into a crooked, totally genuine smile. “Thanks! You too!”

Haseul smiled back, and then she settled into her chair, head back. She let a few minutes pass before she brought up a topic of conversation she had doubtlessly been waiting to use since the moment the two of them had met.

“So, your parents aren’t wizards.” She said the words with an incredible amount of weight, as if she was discussing a prison sentence. Heejin’s head turned sharply towards Yeojin at the statement. Hyunjin didn’t even raise an eyebrow. Vivi was still lost in her own world.

Yeojin hardly noticed. She giggled goofily and nodded.

“Yep. And you guys have magical parents?” She cast a curious eye over the rest of the cabin.

Haseul nodded. “My mom’s a witch. My dad might be too, but I don’t know him, so….” She trailed off and joined Vivi in looking out the window at the countryside racing by.

Hyunjin smiled. “Both of my parents are magical. Vivi’s a half-blood--she only has one magical parent. Her dad.”

Heejin stared at her, looking her over as if it was the first time she’d ever seen her. “Pureblood. I assume you’ll figure it out from the context.” Two magical parents? Wow, Yeojin thought, Bet she saw a lot of cool stuff growing up! Heejin looked almost horrified. She cast a glare, unseen by Yeojin, at Haseul. Haseul shook her head. “Not here, please,” she mouthed silently.

Heejin threw her hands up into the air and crossed her arms across her chest, refusing to look at either Yeojin or Haseul for the rest of the trip.

Haseul leaned forward and took Yeojin’s hands in hers.

“Okay, so here’s the thing. People look down upon people who come from non-magical backgrounds. They may call you ugly names, or push you down, or even try to curse you, but here’s what you have to remember--you’re special, and you’re important. To me, and to your parents too, I’m guessing. Do you understand?”

Yeojin nodded.

“Now, tell me a little bit more about where you come from! And don’t spare any details!”

Yeojin nodded excitedly and began to animatedly tell the entire cabin of the path that had taken her here. By the time she was finished, they were ready to disembark.

**THE GREAT HALL**

After a long and slightly terrifying boat ride across a large body of water, Yeojin was inside the enormous stone castle. She had gaped and gawped with immense awe, as did all of the other first years. It was a small group, unusually small according to the groundskeeper, a very large man named Mr.Hagrid. He was practically a giant in comparison to Yeojin. Or to anyone really.

The first years found themselves assembled in front of a pair of massive wooden doors. They were all chattering amongst themselves nervously, Yeojin included. She was talking to anyone that would listen about anything and everything--chocolate frogs, wand cores, her new friend Haseul, the sorting hat--it was all so exciting!

Finally, Professor McGonagall, or as she corrected them, Headmistress McGonagall came out to welcome them to Hogwarts. She tapped the doors and they swung open with a creak of wood. Beyond was the great hall. And boy, was great the right word for it!  
The massive room seemed to stretch on forever, forward and upwards. The ceiling was--well, there was no ceiling, it seemed to Yeojin. Instead, the glorious stone columns that held the building up disappeared into the starry night sky. Yeojin thought she had never seen anything more wondrous or more beautiful in her life.

The ground level was pretty impressive too. There were four rows of tables, each decked in the colors of their respective houses. The older students were already seated, staring at Hagrid and the first years with a mixture of eager excitement and bitter annoyance. Yeojin chose to ignore the latter. She thought the tables looked rather empty, devoid of anything but the colorful tablecloths. She looked down at her tummy and rubbed her hand over it. She hadn’t eaten anything since she left home last night. She’d been in too much of a hurry to stop and eat on the way to the platform, and on the bus she’d been too busy talking with her new friends to snack on the trolley food. She hoped they’d bring them something to eat after they got sorted--maybe some nice sandwiches! She could really go for a peanut-butter and cheese sandwich right about now.

Yeojin waved at Haseul, who was seating near the front of the Hufflepuff table. The girl gave her a big smile that took up half her face and made her look absolutely blissful. Yeojin did her best to return it, but she was so nervous it probably looked super crooked and weird. Yeojin scanned around the room for her other friends. Hyunjin was sitting next to a tall, elegant looking girl with raven hair. The other girl didn’t seem to be doing much talking herself. Instead, her eyes were working over the group of first years, taking in every detail of their personage. She was clearly bright, but she wasn’t cold. No, there was a warmth in her gaze-- a kind of friendly welcome. Yeojin decided that she liked this girl. If she was friends with Hyunjin, doubly so. Maybe she wanted to be a Ravenclaw. But she probably wasn’t smart or clever enough, at least in her own mind. A bright camera flash out of the corner of her eye drew her attention away from Ms. Elegance and back to the Hufflepuff table. The camera belonged to a smallish girl who was leaning over the side of her table to get a better angle on the Ravenclaw girl. Her hair was tied into a ponytail, her bangs swept over her forehead. She looked adorable-- and slightly creepy, the way she was grinning. Yeojin was afraid she might split her face in two if she kept it up. She turned away quickly for another look at the other tables.

The Gryffindor table was rowdy and loud--just like her. She thought about Vivi, the only Gryffindor she had met up until this point-- and about how quiet she had been. She wondered what exactly had happened to her to make so silent--surely she hadn’t been that way when she was placed in the house? The pink-haired girl was sitting next to a much younger girl who was probably a year older than Yeojin at most. She seemed to fit the mold of a Gryffindor much better. Her cheeks were like little fluffballs, and she was rubbing her chin against the older girl’s shoulders affectionately. She reminded Yeojin of a beagle.

Last but probably least, Yeojin let her eyesight stray over to the Slytherin table. They seemed like very serious people, and there were few smiles to be seen amongst the crowd. The two exceptions were a couple of blonde girls. One of them was sitting on the other’s lap. Actually, the one sitting on the bench was the girl Haseul had been arguing with on the platform. Kim, or something? If that was even her real name. She had her arms tied tightly around the other girl’s waist. The other girl had delicate, precise features and incredible eyebrows. She looked like a doll. The only exception to her beauty was a long, ugly white scar that took up the entire left half of her face. Guess there were things not even magic could heal completely. She was clad in a Ravenclaw uniform--so what was she doing over there? Was she even allowed to sit at a table other than her own? Apparently not, because one of the professors at the head table quickly marched up to her and dragged her off to her house’s table. The other Slytherins laughed, a nasty, mean-spirited chuckle. Kim blushed a deep red and buried her face in her sleeves. Heejin was there too, and she seemed mostly indifferent to the whole affair. She was more focused on the group of first years, trying to pick out who might be a good candidate for her house. She locked eyes with Yeojin. Her expression was harsh and repulsed--clearly she didn’t want Yeojin as part of Slytherin. That was just fine with Yeojin, because she didn’t want that either.

And suddenly, they were at the head of the hall, all the tables far behind them. The sorting hat was waiting for them on the seat of an old, worn down chair. The hat didn’t look much better than its furnishing. The chair was on top of a small set of stairs. The whole thing was very momentous, or so Yeojin thought.

A tall, thin man with wild brown hair stepped up, a scroll clutched tightly in his hands. He looked as nervous and unsure of himself as Yeojin felt. Considering how young he looked, it had probably only been a few years since he himself was attending Hogwarts.This was likely his first job, anywhere. Yeojin felt sort of bad for him, but she was more focused on trying not to embarrass herself in front of the entire school.

He unfurled the scroll and adjusted his glasses, his gaze totally focused on the ink etched into the parchment. He coughed several times while the headmistress (who had taken her rightful place at the head of the faculty table) looked around awkwardly. Finally, in a shaky, uncertain voice, the professor began to rattle off names. The first three students to go up were all sorted into Gryffindor, to much cheering and applause. The beagle girl let out a loud whoop-- so loud that Yeojin had to clap her hands over her ears.

The streak of red was broken when a small, thin girl was sorted into Hufflepuff. The table let out a respectable amount of noise, but they couldn’t really compete with the Gryffindors in that department. After that was a boy who was chosen for Ravenclaw. They were the quietest of the bunch, but they did clap politely. Yeojin expected as much from the smart kids. She hoped she didn’t get put in with them, actually--Hyunjin was nice, but Yeojin wasn’t sure she could survive among that much quiet.

The girl just in front of her in line was hopping from foot to foot in excitement, her tiny pigtails bobbing up and down with her. She looked adorable. She climbed up the tiny set of stairs in two bounds and plopped the Sorting Hat onto her head with speed. The hat deliberated with her for two quiet moments before its voice rang out across the room. “SLYTHERIN!”  
The snakes were almost as loud as the Gryffindors. They reminded Yeojin of her dad when one of his favorite football teams won a game or scored a point. Loud, proud and unashamed. There was something admirable about that. The girl sprinted off to take her place next to Heejin.

And now it was Yeojin’s turn. She shivered in a mixture of nervousness and excitement. This was it. Once she sat down in that chair and placed the old, weather-beaten black cap on her head, she’d be in. The next morning she would wake up, get dressed and go to a class where they would teach her magic spells. It was a literal dream come true, and she couldn’t wait to get started. She just hoped she’d get to spend more time with Haseul--they’d only known each other for a few hours, but the girl already felt like the big sister she’d never had.

She blushed when she realized she had been standing there for way too long. Everyone was staring at her expectantly. She let out a too-loud “SORRY!” and then she sat down in the chair. As soon as she did, the worried looking man placed the Sorting Hat on her head. It started whispering to itself, so low only Yeojin and the hat could hear.

“A curious one, you are.”

Yeojin whispered in as small a voice as she could manage, “Why are you talking like Yoda?”

There were a few giggles around the room at that. Others, probably purebloods, just wore looks of confusion.

“A good sense of humor, too. I can sense that your heart wants to be with friends. People you can talk to and learn from. A love of learning--at least as it relates to magic. That’s good. It will serve you well. But you want to be the best. You might not admit it to you or anyone else, but it’s the truth. And you can’t run away from the truth.”

Yeojin looked up at the hat that had nearly fallen over her eyes.

“So, where do I belong, Mister Hat?” Her voice was tiny and indistinct, unlike her. She couldn’t

“That’s the trick, isn’t it? You would fit well in any of the houses, but I think you would do best in…. SLYTHERIN!”

The loud cheering erupted from the table clothed in green and silver. The students over there stamped their feet and raised their hands. Yeojin was pretty happy too--until she realized exactly where the Sorting Hat had placed her.

“Wait...what?!”


	2. The First Week

**_DAY ONE_ **

 

Yeojin stretched her arms out and yawned loudly as she got out of bed. She’d had a time getting to sleep, but once she had, she was out like a rock.  As she slipped into her uniform, she pondered the events of the night before.

 

The moments after the hat had yelled out Slytherin were a blur to her. She had wandered over to the green and silver table, dazed and disoriented.  Heejin cleared out a space for her and she sat down obediently. The noise had died down between her stepping out of the chair and her sitting down at the table. The other kids were looking at her like she was some kind of refuse that had washed up on their private beach. Someone had told them she had muggle parents--was it Heejin? And why was that a bad thing, anyway? She had no idea.

 

Heejin’s eyes were huge as she sat down. The girl clearly hadn’t been expecting this. Yeojin thought she looked more worried than upset. That gave Yeojin a little comfort-- she had been sure that Heejin hated her. Now she just had to worry about everyone else.

 

The thin man finished up with the rest of the first-year students, and then the Headmistress stepped forward to make a few announcements. Yeojin wasn’t really paying attention though--she was too focused on trying to avoid the glares from the rest of the students. This was just about the worst way this could have worked out. 

 

The girl named Kim was the worst, though. The other students were looking at her with revulsion or fear, but she had neither. Her stare was cold and fierce, and filled with a hatred that made Yeojin wilt. What was her problem? Yeojin didn’t know and she didn’t really want to know. She just wanted to get through school without dying.

 

Things got a little better when the food arrived. The headmistress finished her speech, and witth a wave of her hands, food materialized on the tables in front of them. Literally materialized. Yeojin gasped. Food always made her feel better. She spent the next hour stuffing her face with fried chicken and roast potatoes and a dozen other things she’d never had before. She finished it off with a sticky-sweet bun that melted in her mouth. Yeah, she was in heaven.

 

But then they’d had to go back to the dormitories. Haseul had told her a little bit about each house’s housing--Slytherins slept in the dungeon, beneath the lake she had just crossed in a tiny little boat. Yeojin hated the dark! Why had the hat put her here? 

  
They’d all gone inside the common room and the first years were assigned rooms. Some of the students marched off to bed straight away, but Yeojin was way too amped to get any rest. So were Kim and a few of the other students. They lingered for a little bit. Too long, in Yeojin’s case.

 

She wanted to start a conversation with her housemates. She liked making friends and she’d rather have some here than not. 

 

Unfortunately, the moment she opened her mouth to talk, Kim started screaming at her. Really screaming. She called her names and said she should just go to bed and leave her alone. Yeojin hadn’t even done anything to her! She guessed it had something to do with what had happened with her and Haseul last year, but she wasn’t around for that. Whatever it was, it was clearly a painful memory.  

 

Kim had caused such a scene that a few of the students who had already gone to bed came out of the dorms just to see what all the commotion was about. Yeojin ran off into the girls dorms, embarrassed, and did her best to fall asleep on the rough, unfamiliar bed. For the first time, she found herself wondering if running off to Hogwarts had been a good idea. Nobody seemed to want her here except for Haseul, and she wasn’t there.

 

Well, it was morning time now. The first morning of the rest of her life as a witch. That thought still got her excited, even if it upset other people. She put on her spare uniform--she only had the two, mostly because she’d only been able to afford two. Magical money was strange. They gave muggle-born students a small deposit to buy supplies with, but she had insisted on trying some of the candy. She didn’t regret that a bit.

 

She  briefly inspected herself in the hand mirror she had brought with her. When she was satisfied in her appearance, she tossed it back inside her case and traipsed out of the mostly empty dorms. The common room outside was still dark. She guessed it always would be, considering where it was located. There were a couple of people still hanging around, talking amongst themselves. Luckily, Miss Kim was not one of them. She was glad. Yeojin wasn’t sure she could handle more yelling.

 

Heejin was there, standing off in a dark corner by herself. Yeojin had a feeling that was something she did often. The dark eyed girl’s face shot up to meet hers when she walked by.

  
“Hey, Yeojin!” She waved the younger girl over with one frantic arm.

 

“Yeah, Heejin? Actually, can I call you Jinnie? It’s a cute nickname, don’t you think?”

 

Heejin rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

 

“No, you may not.” Her eyes darted from side to side, as if to make sure no one was listening in on them. “I called you over because you need someone on your side. It’s not safe for a mud-- a muggle-born in this house. There’s more of you guys then there were, but some people still aren’t as tolerant as they should be.” She put a hand on the smaller girl’s shoulder. “Stick with me, okay? I might not know you too well, but Haseul likes you, and if she likes you, I do too.” She gave Yeojin a small smile, but it was enough to make her previously tired face light up like a Christmas tree. Yeojin couldn’t help but smile back, comforted in the thought that she had a friend here. If you have friends, you can get through anything. That’s what her mom would always tell her. 

 

“Okay, Jinnie! I’ll follow your lead!”

 

Heejin groaned.

 

The two of them ate a quick breakfast in the Great Hall, which Yeojin enjoyed greatly. Heejin sat next to Hyunjin, who was stuffing her face full of bread. Haseul and Vivi were nowhere to be seen. “Probably already in class,” Hyunjin told her when she asked. That Gryffindor girl with the beagle face was there, though. She was laughing and chatting with the blonde haired Ravenclaw that had used Kim’s lap as a seat last night. Both of them were at the far end of the hall. They stopped laughing when Kim herself showed up to have a quick meal.

 

That was Yeojin’s cue to leave. She got up, hiding her face beneath the hood of her cloak. Heejin looked around in bewilderment before hopping to her feet in order to join her.

 

In the corridor, on the way to class, Heejin wheeled on her, stopping Yeojin in her tracks.

 

“What was that?” Her voice held no real malice, only genuine curiousity. 

 

“She doesn’t like me. That girl, Kim? She yelled at me last night. I don’t like bullies. And I don’t want her to yell at me again.”

 

Heejin looked puzzled. “Kim? Oh, you mean Jungeun! Yeah, she can seem a bit cold to everybody at first, but she’s really a goofball.”

 

Yeojin crossed her arms and gave Heejin a stern look. The girl waved her hands into the air in protest. 

 

“I believe you, okay? I guess it’s probably because you look like Haseul. Bad stuff there.”

 

Yeojin stood on her tippy-toes, eager to maintain direct eye contact with Heejin. This was a serious topic of conversation, after all!

 

“So, they used to be friends?”

 

Heejin gave her an uneasy smile. “Well, I wouldn’t put it exactly like that…”

 

Somewhere, a bell chimed.  Heejin’s smile turned to a look of panic. “Oh crap! That’s my one minute warning for my DADA class. Sorry, Yeojin, I won’t be able to walk you to class today. Just ask the paintings if you need any help with directions to Transfiguration! It’s pretty much just down the hallway, so you shouldn’t have any trouble.” This was all one breath-- a truly impressive feat, Yeojin thought. As soon as she was done with the words, she was off, sprinting to get to a class she would likely be late for.

 

Yeojin wandered down the corridor on her own with little urgency. She had plenty of time before she would be needed and she wanted to take in the ambience. The stonework in the hallway was incredible. Actually, the fact that she was in a centuries old castle at all was incredible. Not even the disapproving looks she got from her housemates could dampen her excitement.

 

She didn’t see the two girls come up behind her until they had already tossed her and her books onto the floor. She fell onto her knees, the wind knocked out of her by the sudden impact. When she tried to get up, she found a foot pressed against her back, forcing her down onto the ground. The side of her face smacked into the cold stone, leaving a painful red mark all the way down. Yeojin whimpered. She had no idea what was going on.

 

“Owwiiieeee….”

 

A female voice giggled. Another voice, huskier and rougher, shushed her. The second voice was closer to Yeojin. She guessed that was the girl that had her foot on her back. 

  
“Hey, what are you trying to do...I just want to get to class in peace.”

 

No response, only more laughing.

 

Yeojin’s face was red now. She could feel her eyes beginning to water. She hated confrontation. That’s why she always tried being nice to everyone. Why were they doing this to her? She hadn’t done anything to them!

 

“Please...let me go!”

 

The second girl laughed now, uproariously, as if the girl pinned under her was the funniest joke in the world. The first girl finally decided to speak to Yeojin.

 

“No, I think we’re happy with where you are, little Mud-Blood.” She spat the last word out as if it were a rotten piece of fruit that had gotten into her mouth somehow. Yeojin thought it must be a slur of some kind. Heejin had almost said it earlier. Yeojin’s stomach turned. 

 

“You’re right where you belong.” The second girl was speaking. “Beneath the feet of your betters. And not at our side, like an equal. Ugly little girls like you won’t ever be our equals. You should leave Slytherin. Nobody likes you and nobody wants you there. Not even your friend!”

 

She spat, right into Yeojin’s carefully combed hair. Another round of laughter. It was all such a joke to them. Yeojin fought back tears. She didn’t want the bullies to see her cry.

 

Very fortunately for her, someone decided to make their way down the corridor at that moment. The two girls whispered hurriedly to each other, and then they ran off. By the time Yeojin had gotten back up, they were already gone. She hadn’t even seen their faces.

 

**_DAY TWO_ **

  
  


Yeojin awoke to a very nasty surprise. While she had been sleeping, someone had dumped a bucket of mud onto her bed. She woke up caked in sticky, half-dried mud. It had gotten into her pajamas and ruined the small set of chocolate frog collectible cards she had fallen asleep holding onto. Nobody copped to responsibility for the prank, but she had a feeling the two girls who had attacked her yesterday were guilty.

 

It was now clear to her that absolutely no one wanted her in Slytherin. Not even Heejin. No one wanted to hang out with a filthy mudblood. It really stung, because Yeojin had wanted nothing more than for magic to be real and for her to be a witch all her life. When she finally got there, the reality was nothing at all like what she had been expecting. Everyone hated her for something she had no control over. 

 

It just wasn’t fair. 

 

She wanted to talk to her parents. They were probably worried sick about her, wondering where she had gone. Well, her dad probably knew, and he might have told her mom, but that meant that they were angry instead of relieved. No, she had to talk to them, to let them know that she was alright.

 

She asked Heejin if she could use her cell phone, but the girl only stared at her like she was some kind of alien. When Yeojin explained what a cell phone was, she only got more confused. Yeojin finally gave it up as a lost cause and asked what she could use to communicate with her parents. Heejin directed her to the Aviary near the top of the school.

 

So there she was, letter clutched tightly in her hands. She unfolded the piece of notebook paper  she had written her message on. With a critical eye, she looked it over one more time, looking for any mistakes or typos she might have made.

 

Dear Mom and Dad,

 

I’m sorry I ran out in the middle of the night. I’m sure I scared you a lot, and I’m sorry for that, too. I just had to see it. It’s magic! Can you really blame me?  I guess you can. 

 

But everything seems wrong. I don’t have a lot of friends here and I don’t have you. It’s a totally different world. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. There’s a couple of girls who have been bullying me. It’s only been two days and I already have people who hate my guts. Why? I don’t know.

 

I’m scared. I don’t know if I have what it takes to see it through. I need to talk to you. I need to see you. I miss you so much. Please write back to me as soon as you can. Please. I know you’re mad, but please forgive me.

 

I’m sorry.

 

-Yeojin.

 

She brushed her fingers against the damp spots where her tears had fallen while she was writing. They were still warm, and the ink was stained and blurry where the two met. She hoped it was legible. 

 

She carefully placed the paper in the inner lining of her robes and moved towards the owls that were flitting around the room. There were at least three dozen of them, all told. Most of them belonged to the school, but sometimes students would keep their owls up here instead of in cages in their rooms. It gave their beloved pets time to socialize with others of their own kind.

 

She spotted a winner hanging onto a metal bar on the far wall. He had tawny brown feathers and sharp yellow eyes. Just what she was looking for. Before she could take a step forward, however, she was accosted by a white blur. The mass of feathers and talons took a swipe at her head. She only avoided it because she was already halfway onto her knees.

 

She screeched and held her hands above her head, hoping to ward off another attack. The bird screeched in response and landed gracefully in front of her. When Yeojin realized it wasn’t going to strike again, she put her arms down and sighed in relief.

 

The owl was a pure, untouched white. Its intelligent red eyes seemed to bore into her soul. It was slightly creepy but also incredibly cool. She gave the creature a small wave and a shy smile. It cooed and turned its head, looking off towards the sound of the opening door.

 

A voice came, smooth and cool.

 

“Hey Artemis! What did I tell you about being polite to strangers?” A pause as she realized who was on the floor. “Oh, it’s you.”

 

Yeojin winced and craned her neck up to look at the older girl. Jungeun (or Kim, as Haseul had called her) was cool as ice, her hands tucked behind her back and her face unreadable. 

 

“Ah, sorry. I’ll just be getting out of your way.” Yeojin scrambled to her feet, eager to escape the room and the awkward situation that had just entered it.

Jungeun held up a hand. “Hold on.”

 

Yeojin froze. She was sure Jungeun was gonna whip her wand out and curse her or some other equally nasty thing. 

 

Instead, Jungeun gave her an uneasy smile. “I want to apologize for the way I treated you earlier. I was upset--for reasons that don’t have anything to do with you. I just saw you hanging out with Haseul and I thought...well it doesn’t matter what I thought. It was unfair. You’re only a first year. I bet you’ve only known about this,” she gestured at the room around them, “for about a month or two. It’s exciting, isn’t it?’

 

Yeojin nodded, her eyes still searching the room for possible exits, her muscles tensed to sprint at a moment’s notice.

 

Jungeun’s smile brightened slightly, became a little more genuine. 

 

“Let’s start over. My name’s Jungeun. It’s nice to meet you...Yeojin, right?”

 

Another stiff nod. Jungeun held out her hand to Yeojin expectantly. Yeojin cautiously took ahold of her hand. It was surprisingly soft. Jungeun took the opportunity to pull Yeojin up. Yeojin nodded, more eagerly this time, and brushed the dust of the aviary floor off of her pant legs.

 

“Nice to meet you too, Jungeun.” Yeojin gave the older girl a shy smile. Any friends she could make in her own house would be helpful. It would make things slightly more bearable, at least.

 

Jungeun looked around the room, as if she was seeing it for the very first time, which was clearly not the case. Artemis, her owl, hopped off the floor and flapped his way onto Jungeun’s leather clad wrist. She cut an impressive silhouette that way. She looked like something out of one of Yeojin’s Beast Tamer books.

 

“So…”

 

“So…”

 

Jungeun laughed, a raucous and joyful thing, and Yeojin couldn’t help but join her. She was starting to feel a little better about this whole situation already.

 

When they finally settled down, Jungeun looked at her inquisitively. 

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

Yeojin’s hand unconsciously drifted to the side of her robe, atop the pocket that held her oh so precious letter home. 

“I’m gonna get one of these guys to carry a letter home. That’s how you all communicate, right?”

 

Jungeun raised her eyebrows playfully. 

 

“Don’t you use ‘you all’ on me! I’m a half-blood. I’ve been in your shoes, trust me.”

 

Strangely, Yeojin found that she did.

 

“What’s the letter about?” She held up her hands at the look Yeojin gave her. “I’m just curious! You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

 

Yeojin looked down at her clasped hands. 

 

“No, it’s okay. I was just missing my parents. They have no idea where I am, and I wanted to let them know. “ In a smaller voice, she said, “I feel like I don’t belong here. I was never prepared for any of this.”

 

Jungeun’s eyes were sympathetic. She gave Yeojin’s hand a tight squeeze. 

 

“I’m very sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I was upset...it had nothing to do with you. You do belong with us. You  _ are  _ a Slytherin, and there’s nothing anybody can do to change that.”

 

Yeojin gave her a small, sad smile. 

 

“Have you ever done this before? Sent a letter by owl?”

 

Yeojin shook her head. That was a big no. She didn’t even really see birds all that often in her hometown. 

 

Jungeun smiled encouragingly and held out her hand.

 

“Let me help you out. Give me the letter and I’ll have Artemis fly it out. She’s the fastest bird in this room. Probably in the whole school. And you can trust her. That’s my guarantee.”

 

Yeojin pondered it for a few moments. Was she really going to trust the delivery of such an important letter to a suspicious owl and someone who had only just started being friendly to her? For all she knew, this was just the first step of a really elaborate prank.

 

In the end, she couldn’t help herself. There was something about Jungeun that made Yeojin want to trust her. A natural charisma. She dug the letter out of her robes and plopped it down onto Jungeun’s ungloved hand. Jungeun took the letter between two fingers and held it up to Artemis’ eyes. 

 

“Listen, Arty, this is my friend’s letter. Make sure you get it there fast, and make sure it gets there safely, okay? No funny business.” The bird seemed to nod, and with that silent acknowledgement, she handed the letter over. The bird took it in one talon and flew out the aviary window., wings flapping furiously.

 

“She’ll be back when they’ve given her something to deliver. Shouldn’t be more than two days. Take that, Amazon!” 

 

Yeojin giggled. It felt good to laugh after being scared out of her wits.

 

Jungeun tilted her head curiously.

 

“It’s too late now, but me and some friends going to have lunch out near the Great Lake tomorrow. Would you like to come?”

 

Yeojin only barely held herself back from screaming out “YES!”. Instead, she nodded.

 

Jungeun clapped her hands together and began to walk backwards out of the room. “Okay! Looking forward to it!”

 

Not as much as Yeojin was.

 

**_DAY THREE_ **

  
  


The Charms classes she had that morning were particularly grueling. It was all beginner stuff, and her classmates picked it up easily, but she struggled. They had practiced a spell to change how heavy or light an object was...she hadn’t gotten it until the class was nearly over, and even then it wasn’t as effective as her partner’s. She couldn’t lie, the results were disappointing.  

 

But that was all over with for now, and it was time to spend some time with Jungeun and her friends. She sincerely hoped they would take a liking to her. She wasn’t sure she could take any more disappointment today.

 

As she turned the corner to enter the expansive grass field that comprised Hogwart’s grounds, she saw the three of them. It was like something out of a painting, the three girls enjoying themselves on top of a red picnic blanket, the sun high in the sky and the sky a purest blue. The clouds had failed to show up today, and the world was better for it. The lake was placid and still, a perfect, untouched mirror. 

 

Yeojin couldn’t help the smile that spread over her face.

 

She skipped over to join the girls. Excited was a light word for the feeling that was currently expanding in her chest. Jungeun was cool, so her friends must be just as cool!

 

When she was halfway across, Jungeun caught sight of her and waved her over with one hand, her other wrapped around the shoulder of her blonde friend. The other girl had her face turned away from Yeojin, munching away on something she held in both hands. A third girl, this one a brunette, peered over Jungeun’s shoulder curiously. Wait a second, that was beagle girl--what was she doing here? Yeojin waved back enthusiastically with both hands, still moving forward at an incredible speed. The girls were only a couple of feet away now and it was way too late to stop. Jungeun cringed and ducked out of the way, pushing her blonde friend onto her side. The girl whined, but Yeojin was no longer paying attention to that. Instead, she was focusing on trying not to die. 

 

She tripped over Jungeun’s legs and onto beagle girl. Beagle girl let out an oof and fell onto her back. Yeojin screamed, afraid she might have seriously hurt her potential new friend. Beagle girl was wincing now-- she probably had a broken leg! Or maybe she was bleeding internally! They went on like this for a few seconds until Yeojin realized that the other girl had her fingers in her ears. Oh. She stopped screaming. The girl unblocked her ears and breathed in a sigh of relief.

 

Yeojin blushed a vivid shade of red. She quickly hopped back, letting the other girl pull herself into a sitting position. 

 

“I’m so, so sorry! I didn’t mean to crush you! Are you okay?”

 

To her surprise, the other girl started laughing. 

 

“I’m fine! But your face...you’re so red! Ahahahahahahaha!”

 

Yeojin crossed her arms and huffed. “This is so embarrassing.”

 

Jungeun stuck her head up cautiously. When she was sure everything was safe, she sat up again, carefully wiping off the crumbs of bread that had gathered on the front of her friend’s shirt.

  
“Wow.” This came from Jungeun’s friend, whose long blonde hair hung in two perfectly straight curtains on either side of her face. Yeojin thought she might look like a doll if it wasn’t for the ragged white lines that marred the left side of her personage. They weren’t just on her face, either--the scars trailed along her neck and down onto her shoulder, were they disappeared into her robes. She looked more amused than angry at the interruption.  Yeojin’s gaze must have been exceedingly obvious, because the girl asked her, “You like my beauty marks?”

 

Yeojin wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. This introduction wasn’t going anything like the way she had imagined it in her head. She just shrugged awkwardly and sat down next to Jungeun. Jungeun tilted her head curiously as she looked over the smaller girl. She looked as if she wanted to say something to the girl, but she thinks better of it and shuts her mouth. 

 

She waves one hand over Yeojin and another over the other two girls in a half-hearted introduction.

 

“So, this is Yeojin.” The blonde and the brunette nodded, the blonde’s eyebrows raised in an expression that said ‘oh yeah, we’ve met’. She wasn’t rude enough to say it out loud, though. The beagle girl said nothing, but she smiled encouragingly. “Yeojin, this is Jinsoul.” She pointed to the blonde. Jinsoul gave her a small wave. “And this is Choerry.” She pointed to the brunette. “Nice to meet you, Yeojin!” Choerry leaned forward, and to Yeojin’s surprise, she pulled the younger girl into a hug. “Nice to meet you too, Choerry,”she mumbled into her shoulder. 

 

When Choerry finally let her go, Yeojin gasped. For someone as tiny as she was, she sure had a strong grip! “Ow...you’re really strong, you know?” Choerry nodded enthusiastically. “I know! Isn’t it great? Mom says that if I keep it up I’ll be able to compete in weightlifting competitions when I get older.” Yeojin nodded, kind of overwhelmed by the second year’s enthusiasm. She was like her, but with more energy. She hadn’t thought that was possible.

 

Jungeun cut in, “I saved some food for you, Yeojin. I know you had classes this morning, so I got some extra stuff from the great hall.” Jungeun carefully unwrapped a cloth from around a very juicy looking plate of ham and eggs. “Breakfast for lunch! Never goes out of style. Well, that’s true of breakfast in general.”

  
Yeojin gratefully accepted the plate and began to munch on the food in silence. Jungeun and Jinsoul watched in horrified fascination as she cleared the plate in less than a minute. Jinsoul’s eyebrows shot straight up into her hairline. 

  
“I think you just beat my record.” Jungeun gave her a warm smile.  Jinsoul tapped Jungeun on the shoulder and when she turned to see what she wanted, Jinsoul planted a kiss on Jungeun’s ruby lips. Yeojin’s mouth formed a tiny, surprised ‘o’. They weren’t just friends...they were girlfriends. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t made that connection before. But it wasn’t too surprising...Yeojin was barely out of the phase were she still thought kissing was gross.

 

Choerry hopped to her feet and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “Hey, Yeojin, you know muggles, right?” Yeojin nodded, half her attention still on the scene in front of her. The two blondes were really getting into it. She kind of understood why they called it ‘eating each other’s faces’. “Can you teach me how to skip stones? I keep trying to get Lippie to teach me, but she says she doesn’t know. I think she’s just too lazy to teach.”

 

Yeojin finally forced her attention off of the two lovebirds and onto Choerry. Skipping stones was one of her favorite pastimes, when her mom and dad would take her camping. It was especially perfect on days like this, when the water was perfectly still and the weather was calm. 

 

“I’d love to teach you!”

 

The girl beamed and clapped her hands together.

  
“Great! Now all we need are some stones!”

 

All in all, it had been a very promising introduction.

 

**_DAY FOUR_ **

 

The following morning hadn’t been nearly as nice. Someone had torn open Yeojin’s suitcase and spread its contents all over the dorm. Yeojin had a rough time collecting all of her belongings from unwelcoming and suspicious dormmates. By the time she was finished packing all of her stuff back into the case, it was nearly time for class. She opted to miss out on breakfast and dash to class instead. Her hair was a mess and she hadn’t had time to grab her books, so there were a few giggles as she entered.

 

But she was here now, and she had a chance to learn something that she might actually be good at.  Yeojin took a seat next to the girl with pigtails that had been so energetic during their sorting. She was less enthusiastic now. In fact, she seemed a little sour, her lips set into a disgusted frown as Yeojin sat down. Yeojin did her best to focus on the little scratch marks in the wood of the desk. She had friends here. She didn’t have to take this from these people. That’s what Jungeun had told her, and she was the queen of cool. If Yeojin was lucky, she could make princess of cool a thing. 

 

The pigtailed girl waved her hands in front of her face as if she had just smelled something awful. Yeojin buried her chin into the desk and tried to pretend she hadn’t seen that. She pulled a small black cauldron out of her bag, along with a tiny knife and several ingredients. She had no idea what they’d be making to start with, but it was always good to be prepared.

 

A few more students made their way into class, but only a few. After everyone was in their seats, the professor emerged from behind the curtain that was set into the back of the room. It was probably meant to be theatrical, but the man tripped over the edge of the curtain and flopped onto his desk. The Slytherins in the room managed to supress their laughter, but the Hufflepuffs were not so reserved. The professor straightened himself out, gasping and groaning and clutching his back. His pale cheeks were speckled with pink. “Stop that right now, or it’s ten points from both your houses!” He looked more worried than angry. Fortunately for him and for the rankings of both houses, the laughter died down quickly. 

 

The professor sighed, straightened his tie and began to speak.

 

“Welcome to all of you. I am Professor Ellis, and I will be teaching you the art of potion-making. Yes, the art and not the craft, although you might say that we’ll be doing a little bit of both in this class.” He laughed, a high-pitched, nervous giggle. No one else did.  A boy near the back of the class coughed.

 

Professor Ellis grimaced and continued on in a droning monotone about the very basics of potion crafting and the origins of the art. After about half an hour of this, Yeojin was beginning to get very bored. She hadn’t gotten all that much sleep last night, and she could feel herself starting to drift off. She had to support her chin with her hand just to keep her head up. Finally, the professor wrapped up his lecture and rolled out a small table with all the ingredients he would need pre-assembled. 

 

“I want you all to have the best chance of succeeding, so everybody team up with the table next to you.”

 

Yeojin turned to her right and saw the students she would be teaming up with. They were a couple of girls who also happened to be Slytherins. Great. There would be no escaping the ridicule during this class.  They dragged their chairs over to either side of Yeojin’s desk and sat down. One of them had short, dark hair and the other was a blonde with a big nose. Neither of them looked too friendly. The blonde struck up a conversation with the pigtailed girl that was supposed to be  _ her  _ partner, and the two had instant chemistry. The dark-haired girl just stared at her with severe, judging eyes.

 

The professor went over how to properly cut open and dissect the glands of a dried Truscan Crawler. Yeojin searched for one in her bag, but couldn’t find anything that even remotely fit the description. She fidgeted in her chair--this really couldn’t be happening. Now she had to ask one of these girls if she could borrow some of theirs. 

 

She bit her lip and then tapped the pigtailed girl on the shoulder. The other girl shuddered in disgust, and then she wheeled on her with eyes full of fury. “Who do you think you are, touching me like that? Don’t you know who I am?” 

 

Yeojin held her hands up.  _ It beats me,  _ she thought. 

 

“I just wanted to ask you if you had any spare Truscan Crawlers I could use?” The girl looked Yeojin up and down as if she were crazy. She looked over at the blonde and then leaned in to whisper in her ear. The blonde giggled and then nodded, as if she had just told the funniest joke in the world.

 

Pig-tails turned back to her and smiled. It was unsettling, mostly because her smile didn’t reach her eyes, which were just as cold as ever. Yeojin didn’t much care, as long as she got what she needed to make the potion.

 

“Here, I’ll do you one better. These are the glands from the crawler I just dissected.” She dropped two tiny green orbs into Yeojin’s bare palm. They looked alright to her, but she couldn’t help being a little suspicious. Still, she set the glands down among the rest of her ingredients and sat in to listen to the rest of the recipe. 

 

The professor rushed through the preparation instructions and the cooking times of the potion so fast Yeojin could barely understand him. She wasn’t the only one, either, because many of the Hufflepuff students raised their hands in confusion. She should have been one of them. She probably wouldn’t be getting this much crap if that were the case.

 

The professor didn’t answer questions, but he did keep moving along. He made another potion and mixed the first potion with that one to create a glowing orange mixture that sparkled like fireworks when completed. It was impressive, but Yeojin was too busy trying not to mess up her own. She poured in a little bit of pixie tears and stirred a bevy of carefully chopped roots--everything seemed to be going well so far.  Five stirs clockwise, two counterclockwise, and a dash of spriggan root. The solution shimmered promisingly in the bottom of her cauldron. She smiled brightly and dropped the final ingredient, the crawler glands, into the basin. 

 

That’s when everything went wrong.

 

The previously clear solution turned a bright, violent green and exploded up against her face and into her mouth. She coughed, trying to spit the volatile solution out of her throat, to no avail. The bitter taste clung to her tongue, her teeth and the back of her throat. But it was more than that...she was gagging on something long and squishy. She was pretty sure it was going to choke on it if she didn’t get it out soon. Pig-tails giggled and clapped her on the back, grinning jovially. “Hey, what’s wrong? Got something caught in your throat?” The three girls at Yeojin’s table shared a knowing look. The glands! They had poisoned them somehow and now she was going to die!

 

The truth was not nearly as lethal, but it was terrible all the same.  Yeojin stood up, tipping her chair over in the process. She put her hands up to her throat, trying to squeeze the offensive thing out of her. It didn’t work. It did, however, earn her some looks from the rest of her classmates. The professor didn’t even look up. Yeojin made gestures at her throat, trying to indicate that she was choking on something, but no one made a move. They only stared in a strange kind of fascination.

 

Yeojin needed to tell them what was going on, to get someone to help. As soon as she opened her mouth to speak, the thing that had been waiting at the back of her throat popped out. It kept growing, long and squishy and pink. Yeojin looked down at the thing and let out a muffled scream. That  _ thing  _ was her tongue, horrifically mutated beyond all recognition. She screamed again, and this time the teacher looked up. His look was one of mild surprise, but he didn’t seem all too concerned about the fact that one of his students had a THREE FOOT LONG TONGUE STICKING OUT OF THEIR MOUTH. Yeojin coughed. She couldn’t pass any air past her massive tongue, and she was starting to feel quite light headed. The girls who had pulled this nasty prank were laughing their heads off now, screaming in raucous laughter. Yeojin focused on putting one foot in front of the other. She had to get out of here, to get somewhere safe.  She moved towards the front door as black spots began to manifest in the corner of her eyes. Tears, wet and hot, began to roll down the sides of her face. Why wasn’t anyone helping her? 

 

She took another step, and she accidentally stepped on the tip of her tongue, dragging its way across the floor. To her horror, she could actually taste the sole of her shoe and the dirty dungeon floor. Her vision was beginning to blur. She wasn’t going to last much longer now. Was this how she died? As a freakshow in front of a bunch of people who didn’t care about her?

 

Yeojin tripped over the edge of something. It might have been a foot, or it might have been the leg of a stray chair. In the end, it didn’t matter. The result was the same-- she sprawled over the floor in a tangle of limbs, hair and tongue. Her last thought before she passed out was  a sincere hope that her parents got her letter and that they wouldn’t miss her too much.

 

**_DAY FIVE_ **

 

“Is she going to be alright?” 

 

Those were the first words Yeojin heard as she returned to consciousness. Her sight came back a few seconds later, blurry and indistinct, but it was there. Yeojin sighed deeply. She was so glad to not be dead. The only thing she could see was the boring beigeness of the infirmary’s ceiling.  Even that was wonderful to her right now.

 

The girl who had asked if she was alright let out a loud gasp and rushed to her side. Yeojin’s neck was way too stiff to turn more than few inches in either direction, and she was pretty sure her tongue was still messed up. The girl grasped her hand firmly and leaned over Yeojin’s face.

 

“Don’t try to speak, Yeojin. Your body’s not ready for it now. At least, that’s what Madame Abbott says. She’s usually right about these things.”

 

Haseul smiled warmly, her eyes scrunched up and pleasant. It made Yeojin want to smile too, but her tongue was still in the way. She was sure she must have looked ridiculous to an outside observer.  Haseul’s hand came to rest on Yeojin’s shoulder as she took a seat on the side of her bed. Yeojin strained her eyes, trying to see if there was anyone else waiting to comfort her. She could only see Madame Abbott. The stern-looking woman had her arms crossed over her chest and impatient expression on her face. None of her other friends seemed to be here.

 

As if she could sense Yeojin’s question, Haseul was quick with an explanation. 

 

“It’s just me, Yeojin. Hyunjin and Heejin were here last night and earlier this morning, but they had to go to class. It was just Vivi and me for a while there. Kim tried to get in here, too.” Yeojin’s eyes widened. “Don’t worry, I kept her out of the infirmary. I told her that it was none of her business and that she should get her own friends.” Yeojin shook her head. Jungeun was her friend, too. She didn’t like this fighting. If what Haseul had said to her before getting on the Hogwarts Express was true, Jungeun and her used to be friends. What had happened last year to wound the two so badly?

 

Haseul frowned. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” Probably because she didn’t want to understand. Old people were funny like that. Yeojin decided to just move on. She gave Haseul’s hand a light squeeze. Haseul clasped Yeojin’s hand in both of hers. 

 

“We were really worried about you, you know.  You must have been so frightened. You haven’t been exposed to much magic, and that probably wasn’t a great first impression. But it can be really good. I can show you. Later. Madame Abbott wants to keep you for the rest of the day, just to be safe.” She didn’t mention any of the girls from her class, so Yeojin was sure they must have denied responsibility, if they had even been suspected in the first place. Yeojin had a sick feeling they were overlooked because of blood status.

 

Haseul left shortly after that.

 

Yeojin was alone in the infirmary for a while, with only the soft sounds of Madame Abbott moving about and treating other patients to accompany her. Slowly but surely, she began to regain movement in her neck. She used her newfound flexibility to take a closer look at her surroundings. There was a card on the table next to her. Yeojin snatched it off the table and sat up in order to read it, ignoring the groaning pain that shot through her back as she did. ‘

 

It was handmade, not store-bought, which was a change for Yeojin. The entire thing had been cut in the shape of a heart and was made out of red construction paper. There were several messages inside from the few friends she had made in her time here. Jungeun and Jinsoul were noticeably absent, although Choerry had written a short ‘get well soon’ message with a cute drawing of a bat next to it.  Heejin’s message was short and curt, as was expected of her. Hyunjin had written a goofy joke, which did its job of making Yeojin smile. Vivi’s message was unexpected, though.

 

On the card, she had written:

 

“I know I haven’t spoken to you much or at all, but you make Haseul happy. She wants to be your friend, and you make her shine in a way she hasn’t for a very long time. Please do your best to get well and to rejoin us. You’re a very nice person and I’d like to introduce myself to you very soon.”

 

The writing was formal and stiff. Someone had mentioned that she was a transfer student from China-- it definitely showed. Yeojin thought that she’d like to talk to Vivi too, if only to ask her why she was so down all the time.

Hours passed in that bed, with nothing to do. Anytime Yeojin tried to get up and walk out of the infirmary, she was stopped by Madame Abbott, who insisted she rest for at least 24 hours so her tongue could restore its full function. Yeojin tried to protest, but her tongue was still overly large in her mouth, so it came out as a muffled, muddled series of high pitched squeaks.

 

Finally nighttime came, and Jungeun with it. She strode into the infirmary casually, as if nothing in the world could stop her. And nothing did. She sat down on the stool next to Yeojin’s bed and glared at the ceiling in cold fury.

 

“I know someone did this to you, Yeojin. I’m still trying to find out who, but once I do, they WILL be punished. I’ll make sure the headmistress knows about this. Don’t worry, Yeojin. Everything’s going to be fine.” When she said it, Yeojin believed it. 

  
Jungeun stood up quickly. She dug something out of her robes and tossed it into Yeojin’s hands. She tilted her chin at Yeojin and then walked off, presumably to hunt down the culprits. 

 

Yeojin looked down at what Jungeun had gotten her and smiled. 

 

It was a chocolate frog.

 

**_DAY SIX_ **

  
  


Yeojin was released from the infirmary early the next morning. Much to her dismay, there was no one waiting to accompany her when she left. She had thought at least Haseul would be there to make sure that she didn’t fall over or something. She whined about it a little to herself, but as there was no one there to listen, it was not very effective.

 

The halls were very empty. Pretty much everyone was at class, furthering their knowledge of magic. That just made Yeojin even more upset that her own education was interrupted by a couple of bullies. Anger rose in her chest, scarlet red and full of gnashing teeth. She wanted to get them back, to make them hurt the same way they had hurt her. She knew it was wrong--her mom always told her anger was useless--but she couldn’t help the way she felt.

 

She stopped against one of the many stone columns that were set alongside the hallway at regular intervals. Her fingers fumbled with the folded cardboard that contained the sweet chocolate of the frog. She was still fiddling with it when they came up on her.

 

Yeojin had been so wrapped up in thoughts of chocolate frogs and what she would do to those girls when she met them that she hadn’t noticed the sound of footsteps echoing behind her. Her head shot up when she heard the first girl speak in a voice that was all too familiar to Yeojin.

 

“Did you have fun with your little potions accident?”

 

The blonde girl with the big nose was there, along with a slightly older girl that Yeojin didn’t recognize. Neither of them looked very friendly. Yeojin’s hand shot to the side of her robes where she kept her wand. The instant she did, the two girls wands were on her. Yeojin growled softly. “We all know it wasn’t an accident.”

 

The girls ignored her, their wands never wavering from her face. They were feet apart, but the threat was clear. “You go for your wand and we zap you into next year. That little prank was just a taste of what we’ll do to you if you don’t leave this school.” 

 

So that was their end goal. Force her out of Slytherin and out of Hogwarts. It’s funny, because just a few days ago she might have been willing to go, fearful as she was of these two. But now...she had met Jungeun. And Jungeun had given her the confidence and strength to go on, to stand her ground. If she didn’t stand up to these bullies, who else was going to? Also, she was really pissed off. They’d made her miss almost three whole days of classes in her first week. 

 

“Who the hell do you think you are?”  The words were her own, loud and angry. 

 

The blonde girl scoffed and put a hand up to her chest, as if she was so offended that she hadn’t recognized her. “I’m Elena Vantrell, heir to the Vantrell family fortune.” At Yeojin’s unimpressed look, she added. “They practically  _ invented  _ Transfiguration.” Yeojin just shrugged. All of this was pretty meaningless to her, beyond letting her know that this girl was insanely privileged. The other girl, eager to establish her own reputation in this little contest, cut in with, “Yeah, and I’m Krystal James. My older sister is a prefect, you know?” Yeojin didn’t know, nor did she care. Elena didn’t seem to either, as she cut Krystal off before she could continue. “And what are you? Some rat from the filthy streets you muggles seem to love?” Yeojin’s hands clenched into fists. She wasn’t a muggle, she was a witch. Who was this girl to tell her otherwise?

 

Elena’s eyes looked over Yeojin carefully. When she spotted the half-opened chocolate frog in her hand, she snapped her fingers. “Ah! That’s it! You’re a frog. Nothing more than a tiny little fly-eater.” Yeojin’s face burned with an angry heat. She wished her wand was in her hand so she could try fighting back with something more than words. Her magic skill was basically nil at this point, but she didn’t care. She wanted to hurt them.

 

“And you’re a two bit bully who has nothing better to do than to attack someone who has done nothing to you besides exist.”

 

The girl rubbed her chin in mock-thoughtfulness. “You know what, you’re right. Your existence does bother me. Let’s change that.” She motioned to Krystal, who lowered her wand. Yeojin tried not to let her relief show too vividly on her face. She knew she didn’t stand a chance against two more experienced witches, especially without a wand.

Yeojin let her fists relax. Elena smiled brightly, but there was something wrong about it-- like she had too many teeth. It made her think of a shark, eager to feast on your bones. Wait, she was saying something-- Yeojin’s eyes widened as she realized it was spell. She threw her arms up to shield herself, but it was already far too late. 

 

A beam of light shot out from Elena’s wand and hit Yeojin dead center in the chest. She felt a series of weird sensations across her body, through her limbs and in her feet. Every centimeter of her being tingled, and then--she was on the floor. She felt so..different.  She couldn’t see anything in front of her except for a dark grey cloth. When she tried to take a step forward, she found that she was on all fours. Standing up seemed impossible. She hopped forward instead, and emerged in a changed world.

 

Everything was huge to her now. There were a pair of massive, flesh colored pillars standing a few hundred feet away. She came to the realization that those were feet, and that the cloth she had been covered in was her uniform. She looked down, ever so slowly, at her limbs, dreading what she would find there. 

 

Just as she had expected, instead of her normal human hands, she had slimy green skin. Elena had actually done it. She’d transfigured her into a frog. Yeojin wanted to scream, but the only thing that came out was a ignominious croak. 

 

Elena and Krystal crouched down to take a closer look at the frog they had made Yeojin into. Krystal cackled and Elena gently stroked the back of Yeojin’s transfigured head. “Aww, you actually make a pretty cute frog. You’re better off as a frog than as a witch,  anyway.” She wrapped her hands around Yeojin’s entire shrunken body and brought her up to eye level. “Bye bye now, little mudblood. Enjoy your new life of eating flies and bathing in the muck!” With that, she tossed Yeojin into the grass field that served as Hogwarts’ school grounds. When Yeojin recovered from the sudden shock, she turned around to see Elena and Krystal leaving, presumably back to the Slytherin commons. She was beginning to get really scared now. Those two were the only ones who had any idea that she wasn’t really a frog, that she was in fact a transfigured witch.They had to come back, right? This wasn’t really their plan--leaving her to spend the rest of her life as some gross, slimy frog? Elena turned, and Yeojin felt a spike of hope shoot through her heart. She was going to fix this, because underneath all the spoiled rich girl stuff, she was really a decent person. Her heart dropped when Elena only gave her small wave and a teasing smirk.

 

Yeojin was stuck. No one was going to fix her. She was going to live a very short life as a frog and no one would ever know what had happened to her, not even her parents. She wanted to cry, but frogs didn’t have tear ducts.

 

She hopped through the grounds for hours, aimlessly wandering and hoping someone would save her. She encountered several people, but they generally only shooed her off or screamed in distress. One boy, hanging out with his girlfriend, actually tried to kill Yeojin on her request. Yeojin very narrowly dodged the red bolts that shot out of his wand to run back to the edge of the forest that surrounded the school. Thankfully, he didn’t chase her.

 

She walked around the edge of the forest for a while, wallowing in her own misery. She had thought she was so brave, standing up to those girls, and she had only sealed her own doom. It was such a dumb move, she couldn’t believe she had gone through with it. They were so much more powerful than she was.  She wanted to see Haseul again, and Heejin and Hyunjin and all of her other friends. They had been so concerned for her safety, it was touching. At the same time, she was angry at them for not being there that morning to escort her to the house commons. She knew they hadn’t even suspected foul play, but still. They should have known.

 

Yeojin stopped hopping in order to catch her breath. This was so overwhelming. Being something entirely inhuman was something she had never thought she would experience. Certainly not like this. But she couldn’t say it was totally unpleasant. It might have been fun if she was doing it of her own free will, and if she was sure she could come back at any time. 

 

These were the thoughts that were running through her head when she spotted her. Or, rather, when the other girl spotted Yeojin.  The smiley camera girl Yeojin had noticed on sorting night was standing there, taking pictures of the forest at sunset. So she did take pictures of things other than swan girl. Yeojin had to admit that the forest looked beautiful that way, the green leaves dyed an autumnal orange by the dying rays of an exhausted star.  Smiley turned to take a picture of the log Yeojin was currently resting on. She gasped as the two of them locked eyes. Her huge smile stretched her tiny face once more. Yeojin felt fear thrill through her. She wasn’t sure what this girl was going to do to her, or what her thoughts were on amphibians. 

 

Smiley set her comically large camera down on a stump carefully. She skipped over to Yeojin’s log and crouched down so the two of them were on the same level. She inhaled, and then she let out a high-pitched squeal that hurt Yeojin’s tiny frog ears. 

  
“Oh my gosh, you’re so adorable!” She clapped her hands to the sides of her face and bobbed up and down, as if Yeojin really was the cutest thing she had ever seen. “Oh, I’ve got to bring you to Sooyoung! She loves animals!” Yeojin would have rolled her eyes if she could-- did this girl ever think about anything but swan girl? That’s who she assumed she was talking about, anyway. 

 

Smiley put her hands together, palm up. She put them right next to Yeojin’s spot on the log and smiled encouragingly at her. Yeojin realized this might be her only chance at getting back into Hogwarts castle and thus to people who could help her. She took the opportunity and hopped into Smiley’s hands. Smiley put her hands together so Yeojin couldn’t hop out, but she left enough space between her fingers so that the girl-turned-frog could still see what was going on. 

 

“Come on froggy! Let’s go introduce you to Sooyoung!”

 

Yeojin let herself relax as the girl skipped back into the castle. Warm yellow light streamed through her fingers and onto Yeojin’s face. Eventually, Smiley was climbing up a set of tightly wound spiral steps. Ravenclaw tower, she presumed. She’d never actually been up here, but it was nice enough from what she could see. A voice muttered a question indistinctly. Smiley hopped in place and answered eagerly. “Sweet Potatoes!” The door to the common rooms slid open, somewhat reluctantly.  The girl cautiously snuck in, watching for anyone that might notice the unwelcome intruder. When she was sure the coast was clear, she made a beeline to the dormitories. She dislodged one of her hands to knock on the door urgently. A sleepy looking Sooyoung (yup, it was swan girl) opened the door, dressed in her pajamas. It seemed she had turned in early.

 

“Jiwoo? What are you doing here? It’s late…”

 

Jiwoo shook her head fervently. “It’s only 7:30, Sooyoungie~. Why are you going to sleep so early?”

 

Sooyoung took a peek outside the dormitory door, and then she waved Jiwoo in urgently. Her voice was a hushed whisper. “I spent all of last night studying for the test on Monday. You should study more. Maybe you’d actually get good grades that way. Instead of focusing all your attention on me. Not that I’m not flattered, but...school is important, Jiwoo.” Jiwoo nodded her head politely. She had clearly heard this speech before.  “Also, you never answered my question.”

 

Sooyoung tilted her head curiously as she spotted the guest Jiwoo had brought with her. “And who’s this that you’ve got in your hands?” 

 

Jiwoo lifted Yeojin up so she was right in front of Sooyoung’s face. The girl was still elegant, and still beautiful, even as tired as she looked. “A frog?”

 

Jiwoo nodded emphatically. “Yup! I found her in the forest! I was just taking pictures of the trees for my photobook and she was just sitting there, watching me! She looks so smart, don’t you think?” Well, smart wasn’t a thing Yeojin was generally known for being. Another reason she didn’t belong in Slytherin. That hat was a sadist.  Jiwoo gasped and nearly dropped Yeojin in the process. “Oh no, Jiwoo left the camera in the forest!” She dropped Yeojin into Sooyoung’s hands hastily and ran out the dormitory door, presumably to go save her camera before darkness completely took over the sky.

 

Sooyoung, to her credit, did not drop Yeojin or accidentally crush her. Instead, she just peered at the girl curiously. Yeojin realized that she had a chance here, a chance to return to normal. She ribbited and croaked at the girl, trying to show her that she had an intelligence beyond the norm for a forest creature.  Sooyoung clicked on the lamp sat on a small table next to her bed, and she set Yeojin down on the wooden surface carefully. She didn’t say much, but Yeojin could tell that she was keeping track of Yeojin’s every movement. Yeojin felt hope, actual hope for the first time in hours that she might be restored. Yeojin craned her tiny frog neck up at the Ravenclaw, tapping both of her forelegs in a rhythm she hoped Sooyoung would recognize.  _ Happy Birthday to me _ , Yeojin thought. Sooyoung’s eyebrows rose higher and higher as she realized exactly what the frog was doing. She leaned over her bed and pulled her wand from its silk holding bag.

 

With a flick of her wrist, she tapped Yeojin on the head with the tip of the wooden stick. Much to her disappointment, she didn’t start shooting up and growing hair. She was still the same frog as before. Maybe she had been wrong to put her faith in this girl. Sooyoung looked at the tip of her wand with intense concentration. When she was satisfied that she had gotten the answers she wanted, she nodded. “Huh.”

 

She carefully picked Yeojin up and set her down on the ground. She swished her wand over Yeojin’s head and enunciated several very long and very complicated words that Yeojin couldn’t quite decipher. She wasn’t that far along yet. Finally, a beam of light identical to the one that had turned Yeojin into a frog shot straight into her body. She began to grow larger, her green skin fading into a more familiar shade of pink. The feeling of growing hair and bones were intense...and painful. Sooyoung was considerate enough to cast another spell to numb the pain. Yeojin was unspeakably grateful for that. Eventually, she was full-sized and human again. Sooyoung had tossed a blanket over her while she was changing to make sure she wasn’t naked when she came back. It didn’t stop her from blushing deeply at the older girl.

 

Sooyoung clapped and smiled beautifically. “Welcome back, whoever you are!” Yeojin let out a small gasp and jumped up to hug the older girl, her arms wrapped tightly around her waist. She was shaking uncontrollably, and tears were running down her face. She must have looked like a mess, but she didn’t care. She was so happy to be human again, to have hope of a future. She had been so scared. Yeojin tried to get out a thank you, but her words were all incoherent through her sobbing. Sooyoung hugged her back and rubbed her hands up and down her back. “Hey there, it’s okay. You’re safe now. That was a really bad situation to be in. You’re a very lucky girl.” 

 

Yeojin didn’t feel particularly lucky. Just relieved. And tired. 

 

“Hmm...Can I sleep here tonight? I’m scared to go back.” That was the truth.

  
Disappointingly, Sooyoung shook her head. “I’m pretty sure that’s against the rules. You should find a prefect or a teacher and tell them about what happened to you. They’ll work something out.”

 

Yeojin nodded and then blushed again. “Um, I don’t have any clothes…”

  
  
  
  


**_DAY SEVEN_ **

 

Sooyoung let Yeojin borrow some of her clothes. She’d transfigured them into something more her size before escorting her through the halls of the castle in a search for an authority figure. It took them awhile, but eventually they came across a prefect who was making sure the halls were free of students in time for curfew.  They’d had a time trying to convince him of Yeojin’s story, but he eventually relented and led them to the Headmistress’ office.

 

They headmistress, naturally being very tired after a long day of managing an entire school, told them that they could have this meeting tomorrow morning, and that in the meantime, Yeojin could sleep in one of the other dorms. The two of them returned to the Ravenclaw common room, where Jiwoo was waiting for them with a confused look on her face and a camera in her hands. She’d asked where the frog had gone, and Sooyoung had pointed to Yeojin. Jiwoo looked shocked for a moment, and then she’d started hopping up and down before giving Yeojin the biggest hug she’d had in a long time (possibly ever). Jiwoo could probably get excited over anything. Sooyoung dismissed Jiwoo after that, but it wasn’t unkind (she even tossed a smile in Jiwoo’s direction!). Yeojin slept next to Sooyoung’s bed on blankets and pillows. She had a tough time getting to sleep after the day she had just had, but sleep eventually came.

 

Now, Yeojin was standing in front of the Headmistress once more. Sooyoung was by her side, holding her hand in a gesture of comfort. Yeojin relayed her story to the Headmistress, careful not to leave out any details. She mentioned Elena and Krystal specifically by name, and told them about the earlier incident in potions, along with the assault she had experienced on her very first day. She told the headmistress about how unsafe she felt in the Slytherin dorms and how traumatizing the experience of the previous day had been for her.

 

McGonagall nodded patiently, two fingers held up against her temples. She clearly had a headache coming on. 

 

The meeting was interrupted when Jungeun entered, hands firmly on the shoulders of both Krystal and Elena. “I found these two laughing about turning my friend into a frog. So, if you had any doubts…” Jungeun’s face was cold, but Yeojin could tell that she was barely keeping herself from wringing the necks of the bullies.

 

McGonagall sighed and pulled herself up to her full height from behind the chair. 

 

“Alright. No decisions will be made at this moment, but you, Elena Vantrell, and you, Krystal James, are under investigation. If Miss Yeojin’s claims are proven to be true, you will be facing a very severe punishment. I am incredibly disappointed in the both of you. “ She turned to Yeojin. “You are to stay out of the Slytherin commons until this investigation is complete. You can room with your friends in the meantime.” She looked over the rim of her glasses. “And I am sincerely sorry that this happened to you. We want all of our students to feel safe within the walls of this castle.” She nodded at Jungeun and Sooyoung, and then she sat back down in her chair. “Dismissed.”

 

Sooyoung and Jungeun exchanged queer looks and descended the elevator back down to the rest of the castle. Jungeun released the bullies’ shoulders and they ran off, their faces paler than sheet paper. Jungeun pulled a pebble from her robe and tossed it at their retreating backsides.

 

Sooyoung crossed her arms and walked a distance away, keeping a careful, if slightly paranoid eye on Yeojin and Jungeun.

 

Jungeun placed her hands on Yeojin’s shoulders.

  
“I’m sorry. I should have been there. You shouldn’t have had to face that alone. Those girls deserve a whole lot worse than being expelled.”

 

Yeojin was still shaken, but she managed to give Jungeun a crooked little smile.

 

“How are you feeling now? A little bit better?”

 

Yeojin nodded. She didn’t feel much like speaking. She was still trying to process what had happened to her.

 

Jungeun looked around a bit and then bit her lip.    
  
“Arty came back with a letter. Your letter. From your parents.”

 

Yeojin looked down at her shoes. “Oh.”

 

Jungeun placed an envelope in her hands. 

 

“I haven’t read it. That’s for you to do. I hope it says good things. You deserve good things, you know?” She looked around awkwardly, her hands tucked behind her back, and then she stepped away to leave Yeojin to read the letter privately.

 

With shaking hands, Yeojin tore the envelope open. She fumbled with the paper within for a few seconds, trying to get it unfolded and readable. When she had it all settled, she began to read. There were only three words on the paper.

 

We love you.

 

Beneath that was a drawing Yeojin had done a couple of years ago, a crude depiction of her and her parents holding hands. The little stick-figure version of her was wearing a witch’s hat. 

 

Yeojin could do nothing to stop the tears that ran down her face, warm and damp.


	3. Jinsoul's Got A Secret

 

**I**

The days that followed passed by in a blur of activity and change. Yeojin, no longer allowed within the Slytherin common room, would split her time between the Hufflepuff basement with Haseul and the Ravenclaw tower with Sooyoung. They were both very nice and accommodating to her situation. Even so, Yeojin felt a little bad taking up space in their dorms.

 

The investigation of the bullies went on for about a week before everything was resolved. The two girls were brought in front of the headmistress and expelled from Hogwarts. Yeojin thought that was a very brave course of action on the headmistress’ part. Elena apparently came from a rich family, and the private schools around which she had grown up had a habit of keeping bad students around just because they could give the school more money. Yeojin breathed easier once they were gone. She was finally allowed to return to the Slytherin dorms, where the only welcoming looks she got were from Jungeun and Heejin. It was still nice to be where she belonged.

 

Classes were going better  for her now. She’d had to catch up on what she had missed on the two days she was out sick, but it all worked out in the end. People were friendlier to her now, a little bit more sensitive to what she had gone through. Or maybe they were just afraid of getting kicked out like those two girls had been.

 

Yeojin found herself rotating between three groups of friends-- the ones she had met on the train, including Haseul, the ones Jungeun had introduced her to, and the ones who had rescued her from a froggy fate. Curiously, none of these three groups interacted, nor did they seem to want to interact. Haseul actually seemed upset that she had made friends with Jungeun, although she tried her best to bury it. Sooyoung had struck up a tentative friendship with the both of them, although it seemed she had never spoken to them before meeting Yeojin.

 

At the moment, Yeojin was sat at a table in the Great Hall, enjoying a nice plate of chocolate-covered toast. Sooyoung and Jiwoo were seated across from her, and a girl she had never seen before had sat down next to her. The three of them were enjoying fresh fruit salads in silence. Yeojin broke the quiet by turning to the girl next to her and offering her her hand. “I’m Yeojin. Nice to meet you, miss…” The girl turned her head shyly, her dark black hair spilling over her face like a curtain. “Chaewon.” The older girls watched the scene play out in quiet fascination. They actually looked quite proud, like Chaewon was their daughter or something.

 

Yeojin nodded enthusiastically and let her hand drop back down to her side. Friends were nice.

 

Speaking of which, she was starting to spend a lot more time with Choerry. She couldn’t help it. The girl had an infectious positive energy that kept her coming back for more. Her and Jinsoul would pull pranks on unsuspecting students. Nothing terribly mean-spirited or dangerous, but funny things. Like enchanting a mirror so that when you picked it up and looked into it, your hair was dyed a vivid shade of orange. Yeojin fell victim to that one more than once. She thought it was hilarious.She thought she might have gotten a bad first impression of the blonde girl at their little picnic. On her own, Jinsoul really was a clown. It made her wonder how she had gotten those nasty looking scars.

 

At some point during those weeks following the incident, she decided to join Choerry on one of her pranking sessions. The two of them made a loud pair that put off anybody who wasn’t already acclimated with the girls. Yeojin loved it.

 

Choerry was carrying around a hastily wrapped box in both of her hands. Her and Yeojin were looking for a place to put it for maximum effect. They were currently walking through the quad, where fall had come into full swing. The leaves were dying off quickly, turning awesome shades of red, yellow and orange. It was like something out of a children’s book.  The box would convey an illusory flame to anyone who stared at it too long. Trying to touch the box or stomp it out would result in the victim being doused in water. The plan was to put it somewhere with a lot of foot traffic and watch the chaos ensue from a safe distance.

 

The wind was making it difficult, though. The air rippled and twisted with intense speed, sending their hair and their robes billowing in every direction. Most of the students had given up the grounds as lost and had since retreated indoors. Not Choerry and Yeojin, though. They didn’t have enough sense between the two of them to get somewhere safe.

 

“Wow, the wind’s really picking up today!”Yeojin had to shout to be heard over the roaring of the wind. That was fine. She enjoyed shouting.

 

“Yeah, isn’t it great?” Choerry shot her a toothy smile. Yeojin nodded vigorously. They were two of a kind, alright.

 

Eventually though, they had to stop and take a rest. The wind was hitting too hard and if they weren’t careful, they could actually hurt themselves. Yeojin leaned against a tree and Choerry joined her, clutching the package tightly to prevent it from getting snatched by the wind. In the hollow base of the tree, they were pushed right up against each other. Yeojin could feel Choerry breathe. It was decidedly uncomfortable.

 

Yeojin spoke first. “This wasn’t a great idea.”

 

Choerry gave her a smile. “The best pranks usually aren’t. It takes skill and experience to know when and where to prank. I’ve got both.”

 

Yeojin looked up at the swaying tree. “And we’re still here. Not that I’m complaining. There’s nowhere I’d rather be than right here with you.”

 

Choerry raised her chin in thought. “Me too. You know, Jinsoul and Jungeun are cool, but I’ve never really had a friend my own age.”

 

Yeojin squinted her eyes. It seemed like the wind was dying down. “You’re a year older than me. And what about Heejin and Hyunjin?”

 

Choerry let out a deep sigh. “They’re pretty cool, but they’re so...mature. And they’re kind of wrapped up in their own world, those two. Besides, Jungeun says I’m not supposed to talk to them. Or to Haseul. It’s really sad because…” Choerry continued, but her words were inaudible to Yeojin  as the wind picked up once more, its dim howl turning into a furious roar. Yeojin groaned in frustration. She really wanted to know what the big deal was between the two groups of girls. Choerry either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

 

The wind finally ceased its roaring and died down into a manageable whistle. Yeojin stood up to continue searching when she was smacked in the face by a stray piece of paper. She sputtered and waved her arms around wildly. “Hey, where’d the sun go?” Choerry peeled the paper off her face. “It was just some parchment, you dummy.” Yeojin blinked, her mouth slightly open. “Oh. You’re right.” Choerry didn’t seem to be paying attention. Her attention was completely focused on the paper. Her jaw had dropped so far down, she looked like something out of a cartoon.

 

She spoke in hushed tones. “This is the Marauder’s map.”

 

Yeojin raised a quizzical eyebrow. “What’s that? It just looks like a regular piece of paper to me.”

 

“The Marauder’s Map...it’s kind of a legend around here. A map that shows every corner of the castle and its grounds, along with everyone inside of it.”

 

“And what makes you think that this is it?”

 

Choerry pulled out her wand and tapped it against the piece of paper. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” As soon as she finished speaking, the previously blank piece of paper flashed into black and white life. The entirety of the school was revealed, along with dozens of little nametags above pairs of feet. Yeojin could see her and Choerry standing on the far side of the castle. Curiously, Choerry’s nametag said Choi Yerim.

 

“Hey, you never told me Choerry wasn’t your real name!”Yeojin faked indignancy.

 

Choerry shrugged and smiled coyly. “I wish it was, though.” She turned back to the map again, the awestruck look returning to her eyes. “This is so incredible. Jinsoul’s never going to believe this one!”

 

Yeojin frowned. “Hey, shouldn’t I keep the map? I’m the one who discovered it, after all.”

 

Choerry rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You wouldn’t have even known this was the Marauder’s Map if it wasn’t for me. I earned this thing.”

 

“What if we shared it? We don’t have to tell anyone else. We can keep it to ourselves and pull some great pranks. Better than the ones we’ve already been doing.”

 

Choerry seemed to consider this, and then she nodded. “Okay, we can share. But I get first turn!”

 

This turned out to be a wonderful idea. Choerry and Yeojin would plot pranks in secret using the map. Not even Jinsoul, experienced prankster that she was, could avoid the cleverly set traps created with the advantage of the map. Eventually, Haseul caught on to the pranking and chastised Yeojin for neglecting her studies in favor of spending time with friends. Yeojin grumbled and groaned and ultimately decided she was right. She decided to focus on schoolwork.

 

But then that got boring and she asked Choerry for a night alone with the map. She didn’t particularly like peeping on people, but she had to admit it was fun watching the little names flit about on their business. She really missed her smartphone.

 

Yeojin held the map in both hands, wandering through the hallways at twilight. It was about to get really dark really soon. She didn’t care, though. She was looking for some kind of adventure.

 

She found it.

 

At this time of day, most students had usually retreated indoors in preparation for curfew. This was true of Jungeun, Choerry and Jinsoul especially. Tonight, however, things were different. The circle of three were practically on top of each other, Jinsoul’s name sandwiched in between the two others. They weren’t just taking a casual stroll across the premises, either-- they were running at a breakneck speed. At least, Choerry and Jungeun were. Jinsoul seemed to be dragging her feet. They were making a beeline towards the big tree at the edge of grounds--Haseul had called it the Whomping Willow.

 

Her curiosity piqued, Yeojin tucked the map under her arm and ran outside. She made her way over to a slightly out of the way hill that overlooked the tree, just to see if she could spot the three girls under the fading light of the sun. She crouched behind a rather tall (to her) stone and took a peek.

 

Choerry and Jungeun had their arms underneath both of Jinsoul’s. They were half-carrying, half-dragging the seemingly unconscious girl across the grass. Jinsoul’s head lolled around like a doll with a loose joint. She was still awake, but she seemed totally out of it. Yeojin wondered if they’d drugged her.

 

This was all so strange. The three of them loved each other. They wouldn’t do this to Jinsoul. So why were they out here with a delirious Jinsoul and a deadline to meet?

 

Choerry let go of Jinsoul’s arm and ran underneath the sweeping arms of the Whomping Willow. The thing swung wildly at her, but the small girl was able to dodge well enough to reach a knot at the base of the tree and tap it with her wand. As soon as she did, the malevolent tree ceased moving, as if stunned. Jungeun waved Choerry back and the two of them raced Jinsoul down into the roots of the tree. If there was a tunnel there, Yeojin couldn’t see it in the encroaching darkness. She pulled the map out again. Jinsoul, Choerry, and Jungeun’s names had disappeared off of the map, as if they had never been there to start.

 

Yeojin shook her head. This was all giving her a headache. She needed to get back to the dorms and get some rest before her head exploded.

 

**II**

 

Yeojin didn’t get too much sleep that night. She was too focused on what she had just seen. The fact was, she had no idea what she had just seen. She needed to tell someone, she just wasn’t sure who. Talking to any of the three girls seemed like a bad idea. They clearly wanted to keep whatever they had just done a secret. Why else come down to the Whomping Willow?

 

Yeojin considered all of this as she munched on a bowl of dry cereal. She had never really liked milk, so she left it out of her daily routine as much as possible. Vivi was sat across from her, a laconic smile on her face as she enjoyed her breakfast of pancakes and blueberries. Hyunjin and Heejin were off in their own little world of bread critiques (who cared enough about bread to write reviews?). Haseul had eaten for about fifteen seconds before excusing herself and saying she had personal business to take care of. Personally, Yeojin thought that this personal business might be going off to fight someone, the way she was huffing and puffing.

  
Wait a second, Vivi! Vivi would be the perfect person to tell. Yeojin could lay out all of her thoughts to the older girl and the older girl wouldn’t tell another soul. She could get it off her chest without worrying about reprisal.

 

Yeojin poked the other girl in the forearm. Vivi looked up from her meal of pancakes and gave Yeojin a small smile.

 

“Hey Vivi,” Yeojin said, “Can I tell you something?”

 

The pink-haired girl bit her lip apprehensively, and then she nodded.

 

“ I saw something strange the other night. I want to get it off my chest. Promise you won’t tell anyone else?”

  
Vivi held Yeojin’s hand in both of hers and gave the girl an earnest look. That was good enough for Yeojin.

 

“I saw Choerry and Jungeun carrying Jinsoul out to the Whomping Willow last night. Jinsoul was almost unconscious. It was really bizarre. What should I do?”

 

Vivi didn’t reply. Instead, she put down her fork and clutched her head, her eyes squeezed tightly shut in an expression of pure pain. The girl was breathing hard, her chest falling and rising quickly. Yeojin jumped up in a panic. She didn’t want to hurt Vivi. She put her hand on Vivi’s forearm and tried to be the cool, rational voice that guided the poor girl back to reality. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m sorry if I brought back bad memories...everything’s okay, Vivi. I’m here.” She tried her best to keep the fear she felt out of her voice. If Vivi heard that, it would surely send her deeper into whatever this was.

 

The girl took some shaky, ragged breaths, her palms pressed firmly against her forehead, as if she was trying to push the bad thoughts out. Eventually, she came out of her panic attack and she was relatively normal once more. Tears stained her cheeks.

 

Yeojin stuck her lower lip out. “Feel any better?” Vivi nodded vigorously and gave the first-year a strained smile. Vivi took her hands once more and bowed gratefully before shuffling off to do something else in a hurry.

 

Yeojin sat back down at her table, her dry cereal only half-picked through.

  
“Well, that was weird.”

 

Yeojin kept a careful watch over Jungeun, Choerry, and Jinsoul’s names on the nights she had the map. A secondary priority was Vivi, who seemed to be spending a lot of time in the library on evenings. Yeojin stuck her tongue out at that. She really couldn’t be bothered with boring old books. She’d rather have her phone any day of the week. She asked Jiwoo, one of the only other muggle-borns in her circle of friends (the other was Sooyoung, naturally) what would happen if she brought one over. The girl smiled helplessly and shrugged. “Electronics don’t work in areas high in magic. I tried it once and my phone exploded into confetti.” Upon Yeojin’s skeptical look, she clapped her hands and grinned “You don’t believe me, but it’s true. I still have the confetti in my bags.”

 

In the meantime, her grades suffered. As much as Yeojin tried, she was really a bad student. She did her best to listen up in class and do what the teachers wanted, but she just couldn’t get the hang of it. Any time she tried a spell, something would go just ever so slightly wrong with it to change its effects. Either that, or it ended up far less effective than intended. She was really starting to fall behind, through no fault of her own. She had never wanted anything more than to be able to use magic, and it turned out she was crap at it.

 

Luckily for her, Haseul noticed. Unluckily, Haseul wasn’t all that great at magic herself, and she was even worse at passing down knowledge. But she did know Sooyoung, now that the two of them had been introduced by Yeojin. She asked Sooyoung if she could help out her friend. Sooyoung gladly agreed, and the next afternoon, after Yeojin got out of potions, Sooyoung was waiting for her outside of class. Yeojin’s eyes darted from side to side and then she pointed at herself. “Me?” she mouthed silently. Sooyoung nodded firmly.

 

Sooyoung held out her hand and Yeojin took it. Sooyoung guided her past the moving mass of bodies that was the student body and towards the Quidditch pitch. Yeojin had heard a little bit about Quidditch, but she knew little and cared even less. Sports were boring to her. Magical sports were no exception.  She was still in awe of how tall the walls of the arena were, though. Choerry had told her that she was a beater on her Quidditch team, whatever that meant. Yeojin thought she might have to take a glance at the game soon. Judging by the height of those stands, the game was more like a dogfight than anything.

 

Sooyoung stopped in front of a stack of wooden crates sat against a corner wall. From behind the stack emerged a familiar blonde head. Jinsoul tossed Yeojin a wicked smile and a pair of finger guns. Ah, she could be so cheesy when she wanted to be. Strangely, Yeojin felt uneasy around the other girl instead of the warm feeling she normally had spending time with her. Maybe it was because she had just realized that she knew basically nothing about her. Not where she got her scars, not what she did night, and certainly not what she was doing here.

 

Sooyoung let Yeojin go and walked across the grass field to join Jinsoul in front of the stacked crates. She crossed her arms and leaned back against a particularly tall crate.

 

“So, you’re wondering why you’re here, am I right?” Sooyoung spoke calmly, but with authority.

 

“It’s because you need a tutor. Tutors.” Jinsoul was all smiles, but Yeojin couldn’t help but eye her suspiciously. The blonde didn’t seem to notice.

 

Sooyoung placed an an open palm above her heart. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but we’re basically the two best students in the entire school. There’s no one better to help you work out the finer points of magic.” Jinsoul nodded along helpfully.

 

Yeojin said nothing. She looked back and forth between the two girls with an incredulous look on her face. “Haseul put you up to this, didn’t she?”

 

Jinsoul gave her an easy smile. “Yeah, she totally--” Sooyoung jabbed her in the side with an elbow. “No, she didn’t ask Sooyoung to tutor you because she noticed you were struggli-” Another elbow, harder. Jinsoul winced and shot a dirty look at the raven haired girl. “I didn’t talk to you for a whole six years, Sooyoung. We were in the same house and the same dorm and you never even tried to talk to me. We can go back to that.”

Sooyoung threw her hands up, as if to say, “don’t shoot me!”

 

Yeojin shook her head. “I don’t need help. This is stupid.” The truth was, she needed help badly. She was just too proud to admit it. Something she had inherited from her mother.

 

Sooyoung ignored her and produced her wand from a pocket. “Wands out!” she shouted like a drill sergeant. Yeojin shrugged and pulled her wand out from her bag. “This is a waste of time, but okay.”

 

It turned out to be anything but. Sooyoung was a very patient and accessible teacher, always willing to answer questions and go over spells step by step. Jinsoul did a fair job too. She demonstrated proper techniques to control the amount and direction of magic used. They stood in that field for almost two hours, transfiguring crates and charming spare brooms that had been carelessly left behind. Yeojin felt a little more in control of her own spellcasting ability now that someone had laid down the basics. She gave both girls a small bow at the end of the session. She almost never bowed to anyone--she thought it was ridiculous, but this somehow felt like the most appropriate way to show respect in this situation.

 

“Thank you guys. I really needed this.” She nodded and gave them an awkward smile. Sooyoung smiled gently and inclined her head. “Any time, Yeojin. We can do this once a week if you like.” Yeojin grinned eagerly. “That sounds like fun!” Sooyoung nodded and began to walk off the pitch, back towards the castle. Jinsoul lingered for a little while longer, returning the crates and brooms back to their original states. Yeojin stuck around too. She wanted to catch Jinsoul alone, and there wouldn’t be a better opportunity than this.

 

“Hey, Jinsoul, can I ask you a question?” The girl stopped what she was doing-- which was turning a goblet back into its original state of being as a wooden crate-- and turned to face Yeojin. She quirked the edge of her lip up and leaned against a crate. “No.” Yeojin raised her eyebrows. Jinsoul giggled and shook her head. “Of course you can. Ask away!” There was a smile on her face. Yeojin was pretty sure it was going to disappear in a few seconds.

 

Yeojin looked into Jinsoul’s dark brown eyes with apprehension. She didn’t want to admit that she had been stalking the girl with a map she wasn’t even supposed to have. So she talked around it.

 

“Are you feeling alright?”

 

There it was. Jinsoul’s smile faded and she shifted against the crate uneasily. “Yeah, I’m fine, why?” Yeojin frowned. “I was just wondering. You seemed a little off a few nights ago.”

 

Jinsoul’s eyes looked around frantically, as if she was looking for the closest possible escape route. In the end, she decided to talk her way out of it.

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I feel fine.” Her voice was shaky and unnaturally high-pitched. The girl was a bad liar. But Yeojin decided not to push any further. She was clearly uncomfortable with the topic, and if Yeojin asked any more questions she’d give herself away.

 

“Oh, I was just curious. Have a nice night, Jinsoul!” She smiled and gave Jinsoul a small wave before turning on her heels and skipping back to the castle. Jinsoul stayed by the crate and waved at Yeojin’s back.

 

So Jinsoul wasn’t going to tell her anything. Jungeun and Choerry would likely be even more secretive. So how was she going to figure this out? Vivi seemed to be doing some detective work in the library--maybe she could ask the librarian what she had checked out recently. As much as she detested reading, the titles could clue her in to something she might have missed.

 

The librarian gave her a small notecard which contained the titles of three books:

  
PHASES OF THE MOON

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

CURSES OF THE LIFELONG VARIETY

 

Yeojin shrugged and tossed the card into the wastebin. That was a total waste of her time. They didn’t tell her anything except that maybe Vivi was obsessed with nature. Curses...maybe Jinsoul had been cursed and that was why she needed to get away one night a month.

 

Yeojin felt a cold chill sweep through her. She turned around and came face to face with a ghost. Ghosts were also real, in addition to magic. The ones she had seen around campus scared the daylights out of her. To think that they were actual dead people, bound to this castle forever and ever...well, it was just horrible. She sincerely hoped that whenever she died, she would pass on to the afterlife instead of being trapped in school. She couldn’t imagine a worse fate.

 

The ghost was a sad, scared looking girl around Haseul’s age. Black fluid stained her face and her clothes...probably blood in her life. Half of her face was shrouded underneath a curtain of black hair. Yeojin hadn’t seen this one before, but she probably had a name. They all had names, stupid little nicknames like Nearly-Headless Nick or even Peeves.

 

Yeojin took a step towards the girl, holding back her fear for the sake of politeness. She was a person, after all, even if she was dead. “Hi, my name’s Yeojin. What’s yours?”

 

The ghost shook her head and pointed to her throat, which was….absent. There was nothing there but a dark black hole. Nearly-Headless Nick could speak just fine, though...ah, this was giving her a headache.

 

She put two fingers against her temples.

 

The ghost was staring at her with sad, pleading eyes.

 

“Do you have something to tell me?”

 

The ghost nodded up and down vigorously. Yeojin shrugged helplessly.

 

“You can try, but I don’t know sign language, sorry.”

 

The ghost rolled her eyes and pointed at the wastebin Yeojin had just chucked the transcript into. Yeojin pointed to it and asked, “The library card?” The ghost nodded. Yeojin grimaced, and then she stuck her hand into the bin and dug around for the piece of paper she had just tossed into the garbage.  She tried not to think too hard about the liquid that spilled onto her sleeve. She got ahold of the card and yanked it out of the trash, holding it aloft triumphantly. The ghost drifted over to her, a stream of silver trailing behind her.

 

“What do you need this for?”

 

The ghost pointed to the first title emphatically, her finger jabbing right through the ink and paper.

 

“Phases of the Moon? I’m sorry, i don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me.”

 

If the ghost could have groaned, Yeojin was sure she would have right then and there. Instead she crossed her arms and glared at the girl. Yeojin held up her hands in surrender. “Don’t kill me or possess me or whatever creepy things it is ghosts do!” The ghost decided not to respond to that. She tapped the title of the book once more and then she vanished, as if she had never been there in the first place.

 

Yeojin stood there, open-mouthed for a few moments, the dirty card still in her hand.

 

“Spooky.”

 

Yeojin spent some time in her bed that night thinking about that ghost and how desperately she had pointed to the title of the book.

 

“Phases of the Moon, huh?”

 

She really couldn’t think of any reason why Vivi would have checked that book out of the library. It seemed so absurd. Who cared about what the moon looked like? Still…

 

The night of Jinsoul’s little trip out, the moon had been as big and as bright as could be. That was a full moon, and it only came once a month, if what Yeojin had learned in her science class meant anything. A month was thirty, maybe thirty-one days. It had been just about eighteen days since that night. She still had a week and a half before the next time occured. She’d have to make sure she had the map that night.

 

She slept that night and dreamt of massive wheels of cheese and of ghost girls with torn throats.

 

Five more days passed, and Jinsoul still hadn’t gone out to the Whomping WIllow again. Things were getting closer now, and Yeojin was still stumped. She’d have to ask someone she trusted for help. Vivi clearly had some idea of whatever this was, and she was stumped. Yeojin had no chance without some help.

 

She had the opportunity to ask a few days later, when Haseul, Heejin and Hyunjin decided to spend their lunch break with her.  The four of them had migrated from the great hall to a secluded corner of the castle overlooking the shoreline. The water was choppy and rough. There was a storm coming.

 

Heejin and Hyunjin enjoyed feeding each other while Haseul watched over them thoughtfully. Yeojin decided that now was the best time to spring her question on the older girl.

 

“What happened last year? Why don’t you talk to Jungeun anymore?” She bit her lip, and then asked her last question. “And how did Jinsoul get those scars?” Yeojin didn’t know how, but she knew that all of these things were connected. Haseul stopped eating, her spoon full of broth stopped in front of her open mouth. There was something in her eyes… fear? Shock? She let the spoon drop back into the nearly empty bowl of soup with a splash.

 

She closed her mouth and put herself back together. “Those are some big questions, Yeojin.” She shifted on the pillow she was sitting on. “I don’t think I’m ready to answer any of those. I’m sorry….” She looked back down into the bowl on her lap.

 

Yeojin whined. “No one’s ready to tell me anything! I’m spending time with all of you guys, I think I deserve to know why none of my friends want to talk to each other!” Her voice had slipped into an angry yell without her even noticing. Hyunjin and Heejin had put down their forks and were now staring at the scene in front of them. Hyunjin’s eyes were as wide as dinnerplates.

 

The bowl dropped to the floor and shattered into dozens of pieces. Haseul’s face was grim and joyless. Her cheeks had turned an aggressive shade of red.  

 

“If I don’t want to tell you something, I don’t want to tell you something. Just respect that. I don’t want to talk about Kim or about Jinsoul. They’re bad people and you shouldn’t be hanging around them!” Now Haseul was screaming too.

 

Yeojin felt her hands clench into fists.

 

“They used to be your friends, too. They can’t have been all that bad. I just thought you’d like to know about Jinsoul sneaking out the other night to the Whomping Willow. I thought maybe you’d have some answers. I thought you would help me. I thought you were my friend.”

 

This is when Haseul would normally apologize and put her hand on Yeojin’s shoulder and tell her that, yes, she would help Yeojin out, and yes, Yeojin was her friend. Instead, Haseul’s eyes widened. She froze in place like that, as if she had just been struck by a bolt of lightning out of the blue.  “What did you say?”

 

Yeojin sputtered nervously. “I-I-I...it’s just everyone’s been acting strange….first Choerry and then Jinsoul. I told Vivi and she--” Haseul cut her off. “ You did what? No no no. This is bad. This is really bad. I need to…” She mumbled something under her breath. Haseul was in her own world now, and it was a world full of nightmares. She stumbled past a stunned Yeojin and the pair of girls known as Heejin and Hyunjin. The older girl continued muttering under her breath, her brows furrowed in an expression of intense concentration. She wandered out of the three girls’ sight and into the castle.

 

Heejin stared at Yeojin, open-mouthed. Hyunjin was a little more collected. With her arms crossed over her stomach, she raised one eyebrow and inspected Yeojin carefully.

 

“Damn.”

 

**III**

 

There were less than twenty four hours left for Yeojin to put this puzzle together before Jinsoul had another night out. There was definitely something here. If there weren’t, Haseul and Vivi wouldn’t have reacted the way they did. She just had to figure out what.

 

Like a crazy person, she had torn the covers off of her bed and arranged all the ‘evidence’ she had gathered on top of it.  The (now clean) library card, several pieces of paper describing Vivi and Haseul’s reactions, and all the words spoken by her friends on the topic of last year. None of it got her any closer to a solution.

 

There was little else for her to do now but wait for night to fall. She thought she would wait outside the Whomping WIllow until the three of them walked into it. After that, she’d seize her chance and confront them about whatever the heck was going on.

 

But things rarely went as planned when it was Yeojin doing the planning, and this was no exception.

 

The day of the confrontation was a Saturday, which meant she was off from classes. She was free to spend time with whoever she wanted to, wherever she wanted to. Haseul wasn’t talking to her after the events of the previous day, and Hyunjin had told her to stay away from the older girl while she was upset at her. That was fine by Yeojin. She didn’t even want to speak to Haseul right now.

 

She thought about hanging out with the three girls in question, but she thought that might be too suspicious. She was delightfully unaware that avoiding the three for a whole month and acting incredibly strange when asked about her behavior made her look like suspect number one.

 

She decided to hang out with Chaewon. In all of this, she had totally neglected the mysterious third member of Sooyoung’s group and she wanted to remedy that. So as soon as she finished obsessing over her little hoard of evidence, she swept it all into her case and ran off to meet the girl at the entrance to the Hufflepuff basement. She had to admit it was a bit awkward sitting around in the kitchen, watching the house elves slave away at the breakfast they would be eating later. Things weren’t perfect in the world, not even with magic in the equation. It made her a little sad.

 

Chaewon emerged from the basement, her hair soaking wet.

 

“What happened to you?” Yeojin didn’t mean it in a mean way, she was genuinely curious.

 

“Someone thought it would be funny to turn the shower pressure all the way up.” She shook her head, clearly annoyed by the turn of events. Yeojin frowned. The girl was older than her, but she was way smaller.  Yeojin worried about the girl.

 

She put a hand on her shoulder and gave her what she hoped was a comforting smile. Chaewon frowned. Guess it wasn’t as successful as she hoped it would be.

 

The two of them hung out by exploring the castle--if you could call walking around in silence hanging out. Chaewon was a girl of few words, and Yeojin one of many...but not even she could penetrate the thick wall of quiet that had come up between them.  
  
Finally. Chaewon spoke. She stopped in front of a window overlooking the rest of the castle and pointed out at the view excitedly. “This is it. This is my favorite part of the castle.” Yeojin looked around. She was unimpressed.

 

“But why?”

 

Chaewon tilted her head just enough so that the curtain of black hair that normally framed her face fell away. “It’s where I met my best friend.”

 

“Sooyoung?”

 

Chaewon nodded as a smile creeped up onto her face. She looked adorable that way. Yeojin thought she should smile all the time.

Chaewon crouched down in front of the window and took in the breathtaking view of the castle. She crossed her arms on top of each other on the stone and rested her chin on her sleeve. The wind caressed her hair with gentle fingers. Yeojin sat down next to her and decided to enjoy the silence.

 

It was the last moment of peace she would have for a very long time.

 

Chaewon eventually pulled herself to her feet. The moment passed, and she looked at Yeojin queerly.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

Yeojin furrowed her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

 

Chaewon pouted. “You know what I’m talking about. You’ve been super strange for a whole month. Asking weird questions. Everyone’s noticed.”

 

Yeojin cringed. She was hoping she had gone unnoticed. Tonight was going to be a cluster.

 

“I saw something strange a month ago,  and I wanted to find out what it was.”

 

Chaewon nodded. “And have you found out yet?”

 

“No.” Yeojin gazed at her feet. “I’m not smart enough to put this stuff together on my own.”

  
Chaewon put a hand on her shoulder. “Sooyoung says you’re plenty smart. I tend to believe her. Maybe you just need a push.”

 

Yeojin looked up, her mouth slightly ajar. Did Chaewon of all people know something about this?

 

“I heard some howling last month. Is that what you were talking about?”

 

Yeojin’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh.” All at once, the pieces fell together. How could she have been so stupid! Of course that was it.  She pulled out the Marauder’s Map and tapped it with her wand, completely forgetting the fact that she was still in the middle of a conversation. Vivi wasn’t in the library, or in her dorm. She actually seemed to be wandering around the school grounds. Haseul seemed to be running around in a big circle. She was probably looking for Vivi, but she hadn’t had much success so far. Jinsoul was alone in the Ravenclaw dorm room, likely preparing herself for the night to come.

 

Yeojin had to do the same. If she was right, she was going to be in quite a bit of danger when she went to confront Jinsoul in the Whomping WIllow. Yeojin dropped the map, still open, onto the floor and ran off to wait for the party to begin.

The hill above the Whomping Willow was as inconspicuous a place as she could find to hide out in anticipation of her friends’ arrival. The hours between her arrival and the end of the day were long and boring. Yeojin amused herself by casting various useless spells Jiwoo had taught her. She dyed the grass pink and summoned bubbles out of thin air. That was entertaining for approximately three minutes. She decided to pull a book out of her bag and read. It was only a textbook, but it had to be better than staring at an overly aggressive piece of shrubbery.

 

She got stuck on the tenth page, and remained there until night was nearly upon her. She read the same three paragraphs over and over again. Her vision was beginning to blur and her head was starting to pound when the first arrival made her appearance.

 

Vivi came upon the tree first. She looked terrible. The past three weeks had been severely unkind to her. Her eyes were bloodshot, her hair was a mess, and she looked like a caged animal standing there in front of the tree. She paced back and forth, her wand clutched tightly in her hand. Her other hand gripped the bag slung around her shoulder tightly, as if her life depended on what was held within it.

 

She zapped the knot at the base of the Whomping Willow. The ornery tree ceased moving and Vivi walked in, shoulders hunched and teeth bared. Now Yeojin was starting to get worried. This wasn’t how she had been expecting things to go.

 

The three girls arrived a few moments later. Jinsoul seemed a little less out of it this time around.  Yeojin, against her better judgement, slid down the hill to meet them. Jungeun spotted her first, but before Yeojin could even say a word of warning, Choerry had already whipped out her wand and cast a spell on her.  
  
“Petrificus Totalus!”

 

Yeojin’s arms clamped down to her side and she fell to the ground, her body as stiff as a plank of wood. Choerry gasped when she realized just who she had petrified.

 

“Oh my gosh! Yeojin! What the heck are you doing out here?”

 

Yeojin couldn’t answer, of course.

 

“Ah, I’m so sorry. I thought you were someone else….” The beagle faced girl looked up at Jungeun. Jungeun’s expression was unreadable in the shadow cast on her face by the dying light.

  
“Bring her with us. She’s so curious about what we’ve been doing...I think she should know.”

 

She was right, but the way she spoke..her voice was as icy as a December wind. Choerry shrugged and grabbed Yeojin by the collar. Yeojin just looked around helplessly. She needed to warn them about Vivi!

 

Jinsoul stood off to the side, her hands clutched over her stomach. Her face was drenched in sweat, her long blonde hair clinging to the sides of her face. She screamed in pain, a loud hideous sound that made Yeojin’s stomach drop. Did she really have to go through this every month? And this was only the beginning… Yeojin squeezed her eyes shut, It was hard to imagine something worse than this.

 

Choerry looked up in alarm. “We’ve got to get moving Jungeun! The moon’s nearly out!”

  
Jungeun nodded silently and walked into the roots of the tree, holding Jinsoul’s hand carefully. She whispered something into the older girl’s ear with a soothing voice. Yeojin couldn’t quite make it out over the sounds of her body being dragged along the floor. Choerry bumped Yeojin’s head into a rock, causing a spike of pain to blossom forth from the back of her head. Choerry didn’t even notice. None of the girls noticed how odd it was that the tree was already frozen when they got there.

 

Yeojin couldn’t see a lot of what happened next. The corridor beneath the tree was dark and restrictive, and she could only look up at the ceiling. Choerry wasn’t helping matters with her careless egress through the tunnel.  

 

There was a sudden shout of surprise, and then a lot of screaming from Jinsoul. Choerry broke out into a run, her fingers still gripping Yeojin’s collar. Yeojin squeezed her eyes shut and hoped she wouldn’t break her neck against the wall. That would be a stupid way to die.

 

Choerry pulled Yeojin into what appeared to be the shabby looking main room of a wooden cabin. What an odd thing to put under a tree. Jungeun had her wand out and she was pointing at someone Yeojin couldn’t see, presumably Vivi. Jinsoul had huddled up in a corner and was currently screaming in pain. Choerry let go of Yeojin’s collar and pulled out her own wand.

 

Jungeun. “What the hell are you doing here? How did you know about this place?”

 

No answer from Vivi. The girl let out a feral yell.

 

Choerry. “Hey, you better back off of my friend here. I don’t care who’s friend you are, Vivi, if you stop us from taking care of Jinsoul, we’ll…” Her voice shook. There was no way Choerry would actually go through with hurting the girl.

 

Jungeun on the other hand…. “We’re all in danger if we don’t strap Jinsoul down before the moon comes out. We have a few minutes at most. If you don’t want to die, we need to--”

 

Another scream from Jinsoul. This one was more a howl.

 

Choerry gulped audibly.

 

Jungeun begged. “Please.”

 

Vivi pulled something metallic out of her bag. Jungeun and Choerry both gasped.

 

“You don’t understand...she’s not in control of this. We need to get her somewhere where she can’t hurt herself or anyone else.”

 

The door behind Yeojin burst open and loud footsteps announced a new arrival.  Yeojin could only see her boots.

 

“Vivi?” Haseul asked.

 

Silence.

 

“Vivi, I know what happened to you last year was horrible and traumatizing, but you have to let it go. Jinsoul’s not to blame. Killing her won’t change anything.”

 

Vivi screamed, a ragged and raw thing full of pain and anguish. There was a loud creaking as she fell to her knees.

 

Jungeun was unamused by her new visitor.

 

“I don’t need you to help me, Haseul. You’ve already done enough to contribute to this situation.’  
  
Haseul was shouting when she opened her mouth again. “Goddamnit, don’t you think I know that? I’m sorry, okay. I’m so, so sorry. About us and about everything!”

 

Jungeun pointed at Jinsoul.

 

“You should apologize to her, first. I don’t need to listen to you anymore.” And with that, Jungeun turned her wand on Haseul. There was a slight shift in the room as Haseul leveled her wand on her former friend.

 

The room was further disturbed when two more sets of feet clambered into the room. A soft voice went, “Oh,” and another girl pulled her wand out. The voice belonged to Chaewon, and the other could only be Sooyoung.

 

“What is going on here?” Her eyes darted over to Yeojin in the corner. “And who stunned Yeojin?”

 

Choerry still had her wand trained on Vivi, but she was aware enough to raise her hand with a deeply regretful expression on her face.  Yeojin wanted to scream. Everybody was fighting with everyone else and no one was paying attention to Jinsoul.

 

That changed when Jinsoul roared. It was something half-human, half-beast… somewhere between pain and ecstasy. Jungeun moved to take ahold of the changing girl, but Vivi shot her hand with a bolt of red from her wand. Jungeun screamed and dropped her own wand.

 

Sooyoung hovered protectively in front of Chaewon, her gaze darting from girl to girl in the suddenly crowded room. Something had to happen, and soon. Yeojin had a feeling that whatever happened wouldn’t be good.

 

And then Vivi began to speak, in a soft, emotionless voice that betrayed none of the anger raging inside of her. A hush fell over the room. Everyone stopped what they were doing to listen.

 

“She killed her.” A pause, and then. “Last year….”

  
Her accent was thick, but her words were clear all the same. She had a point she wanted to make and a story she wanted to tell, and she wasn’t going to let any of them stop her.

 

Yeojin just hoped she’d finish before the moon came up.


	4. Vivi Speaks

Last year….

 

Last year, Wong Kahei, better known by her nickname of Vivi, was a happy, well-adjusted person with a bright future ahead of her.

 

Last year, Jo Haseul and Kim Jungeun were the it couple of the entire school. If there was anyone the students expected to stick together after their education came to a close, it was the two of them. They were what other couples could only dream of. Haseul had been sure that the love songs she so loved listening to were written with the two of them in mind.

 

Last year, Jinsoul was just another Ravenclaw, mind solely focused on her studies and on getting through class. She had the occasional bit of fun, and she had her eye on the first year Gryffindor who had successfully pranked her as a potential protege.

 

Last year, they were all friends with each other. They had fun, they laughed, they enjoyed the company of like minded people. Haseul had taken a liking to the chinese transfer student, and had done everything in her power to make her feel comfortable in this new place full of people speaking an unfamiliar language.

 

The incredible thing was that this all changed so rapidly. It took less than a week for everything to turn sour and cruel. It all climaxed in three hours of pure terror, where the lives of two students were irrevocably damaged and a third was ended.

 

But this story starts a little earlier. It starts on a beautiful Sunday afternoon after a day well spent with friends. It starts with Vivi sharing a home-cooked meal with the new friends she has made in this strange land.

 

“This is really good, Vivi,” Hyunjin says through a mouthful of dumpling. Vivi blushes a shade of pink not dissimilar to her own hair.

 

“Thank you, Hyunjin. Glad you like.” She was still having difficulty with English, although having the help of her friends was letting her improve gradually. Haseul, especially, was the key to her learning. She glanced over at the girl who was sitting next to her girlfriend, holding hands and whispering sweet nothings into her ear. Well, she assumed she was whispering sweet nothings. She couldn’t really hear from this side of the table. And Haseul was speaking so fast she probably wouldn’t have been able to decipher it at all.

 

Jungeun was cool, too. She had a different kind of charm to Haseul, but that was good. It was what made them a good pair. Anyway, she was so warm and soft around her girlfriend that she was almost a different person. Even Vivi could see that. She was glad she was friends with her.

 

Jinsoul was sat on her side of the table, picking at the noodles Vivi had prepared for her. She was staring at the happy couple, fidgeting uncomfortably. She whispered something under her breath that Vivi couldn’t quite catch. She thought it sounded something like, “Let it go.” Her smooth face nearly gleamed in the light of the lazy afternoon sun.

  
Choerry was seated next to Hyunjin and Heejin, noisily slurping away at the food she had been given. No need to ask her what her opinion was. Hyunjin and Heejin were laughing at a muggle fashion magazine they had somehow acquired. They were good at finding strange things. And at being strange.

 

Vivi winced as a Jinsoul slammed her fists against the table loudly.Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at her. The girl glared at Jungeun, who shrugged. Haseul gave Jungeun a curious look. JInsoul just shook her head and walked off, clutching her books to her side. She hadn’t eaten any of her food.

 

“Is she okay?” She asked no one in particular. Haseul was the one who shrugged this time. Jungeun just looked at her empty plate. Vivi thought she looked guilty. Haseul didn’t notice. She wrapped her arms around Jungeun and pulled her in for a kiss. She didn’t resist. Haseul whispered into her ear. Vivi wasn’t very good at reading lips and she was worse at english, but she knew what she was saying all the same. It’s what you always said when you were next to someone dear to you, to someone you cared for with all your heart. She said, “I love you.” Jungeun smiled, but she didn’t say it back.

 

She hadn’t said it back for going on two weeks now, and Haseul was starting to get worried. She’d never admit it to Jungeun. She could hardly even admit it to herself. It had started with an argument over something small. It was actually about Jungeun’s hair color. The girl had gone and gotten it dyed and she hadn’t even asked Haseul what she thought of it before getting it done. Not that she needed to, but it was nice to feel included. Haseul brought this up in a nice, non-confrontational way, and Jungeun had gotten irrationally upset with her. They ended up screaming at each other in an empty classroom. No one had seen, and no one had heard, so there were no rumors.

 

Haseul had apologized profusely the next day, buying a bouquet of flowers and a jumbo-sized carton of Bertie Bott’s every flavor beans--with all of the soap flavored ones removed-- but Jungeun remained cold. She warmed up to her a couple of days later, when Monday rolled around again. Haseul didn’t look too closely at the forgiveness. She was just glad she had her sweetheart back. She told her how much she loved her. And Jungeun didn’t say it back. She just nodded and smiled, as if Haseul had just told her that she liked the color of her shirt. She continued that way. She might occasionally responded with a “me, too,” or an “I know.” But she never said, “I love you.” Haseul began to panic. She beat herself up internally. How could she have messed up so badly?

 

Jungeun was the only person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. She loved her friends too, but none of them could compare to the sheer warmth she felt in Jungeun’s presence. Jungeun was the sun in her sky.

 

She decided that she needed to come up with something better, something that would truly express her regret. So she cooked up a meal for Jungeun. There was no greater gift in Jungeun’s mind than the gift of food.

 

This was a few days after Vivi’s lunch special, and it was the beginning of the end.  
  
Haseul brought Jungeun’s carefully prepared tray of food down to the entrance to the Slytherin dorm. She had asked Jungeun to wait outside for her, for a surprise, but the girl was nowhere to be found. She asked around, and it seemed no one had seen her.  
  
Fearing the worst, Haseul hustled back to the empty classroom where the two of them had spent their most private, intimate moments together. It’s also where they agreed to meet up if neither of them could find each other.

 

She burst through the door, the doorknob in one hand and her tray in the other. She sighed in relief as she saw the blonde mane of hair in the corner of the room.

 

“Oh thank god, you’re okay. I was worried there for a sec--” Her breath hitched in her throat as the girl turned around. She wasn’t Jungeun. It was Jinsoul, whose face was covered in red lipstick stains. Her mouth was opened in an ‘o’ of surprise, her eyebrows arched up in alarm. But that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part is that Jungeun was there, too. She was up against the wall, her hands clasped behind Jinsoul’s waist. The two of them had been making out. Jungeun was cheating on her!

 

Haseul’s face flushed with heat, from a strange mixture of sheer anger and pure embarrassment. Jungeun had taken her for a ride. Now Haseul knew why she hadn’t responded to her declarations of love. It was because if she said anything, it would be untrue. It would be a lie. She didn’t love Haseul. Haseul’s heart ached in her chest. Had she ever loved her? Had Haseul just been making a fool of herself this entire time?

 

“Y-you...what….” Haseul tried to scream, to yell at the two girls, to express even a tenth of the rage that she felt, but her voice was small and shaky and weak. Jungeun must have been laughing so hard on the inside. She had made a fool of the studious little Hufflepuff. And Jinsoul. Haseul wanted to blast her into a million, itty bitty pieces. She had thought Jinsoul was her friend. She had trusted her. And the two of them had gone behind her back to hurt her.

 

Tears, hot and bitter, ran down Haseul’s face. She couldn’t stop them, as much as she wanted to. They were not silent tears, either. Haseul wailed, her face scrunching up into an ugly thing that no one wanted to look it. She thought she must look like a baby deprived of her mother’s company. That thought only made her cry harder. A couple of passing students stopped what they were doing to take a look at the crying girl. She couldn’t hear them over the sound of her own pain, but they were whispering things about her and about Jungeun. She couldn’t take it any more. Haseul let the tray of carefully prepared food clatter onto the floor, and she ran as far away as her feet could take her. She wanted to retreat into the deepest, darkest hole in the earth and remain there forever. Jungeun shouted something at her, but she didn’t want to listen to a single word that she had to say. Hadn’t she caused her enough pain?

 

Hadn’t she caused her enough pain? This was what Jinsoul thought as she watched Haseul run out of the room. Jungeun reached out for Haseul and shouted for her to come back, but the girl was already gone. Jinsoul knew Jungeun wasn’t getting her back. Jinsoul felt incredibly guilty, the same way she had when Jungeun had stolen a kiss from her in front of the Ravenclaw dorms. Jinsoul had put her foot down. She told Jungeun no more of the romance business until she broke up with Haseul. It was the right thing to do. Sure, being away from Jungeun while she waited for her to do it was frustrating, but it had all been worth it in the end. Or so she had thought.

 

Jungeun had ambushed her and told her the good news--her and Haseul were a thing of the past. Of course, now Jinsoul knew that she had been lying. She glared at Jungeun, her lips set into a thin, perfectly straight line in her face. She wanted to slap her. How could she have been so stupid? Jinsoul had just become complicit in betraying one of her best friends in the worst way. She felt so bad, she wanted to disappear.

 

“You told me you broke up with her this morning.”

 

Jungeun rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

  
“I was getting around to it...I just couldn’t find her anywhere.”

 

“Yeah, because she was slaving over a pot of food for you.”

 

Jungeun frowned and stared at the floor guiltily.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Jinsoul shook her head.

 

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to. Go. Find her, and apologize. Make things right. And then I’ll think about spending some time with you.”

 

Jungeun raised her eyebrows incredulously. “Wait, what? That’s not fair...you wanted this, too!”

 

Jinsoul felt ashamed. She knew she was right, but she had wanted to do this the right way. Now she had hurt a good friend in a way she wasn’t sure she could ever repair.”

 

“I don’t know...I didn’t want to hurt Haseul. I know you didn’t either.”

 

To be honest, Jungeun wasn’t sure how she felt about Haseul. She had loved the Hufflepuff so much for so long. They had become something akin to soulmates. It had gotten to the point where Jungeun spent nearly every waking minute thinking about the girl. If that wasn’t love, she wasn’t sure she had ever experienced it. But then Haseul had introduced her to Jinsoul, a Ravenclaw girl in her year. Jungeun had grown to love Haseul, but this was something different. There was an instant spark, a total connection between the two of them.

 

It started off small. A look here, a conversation there. Jungeun would ask Jinsoul for help with her homework, even when she knew the material front and back. Eventually, it escalated to hangouts and even impromptu dates in Hogsmeade. It all peaked a couple of weeks ago, when Jungeun laid her lips on Jinsouls. It had been nice. Jinsoul had taken her aside and told her that if she wanted to go any further, she’d have to break up with Haseul.

 

But the last thing Jungeun wanted to do was hurt her. So she had put it off, and put it off, until today, when she swore that it was the day. And she had really meant it!

 

In the end, she broke Haseul’s heart anyway. And now Jinsoul was glaring at her as if she was a total stranger. Jungeun hung her head and walked out of the room. There was only one thing she could do now. She had to go and try to somehow apologize to Haseul for being such an enormous jerk.

 

Haseul wasn’t too difficult to find. She was sitting off the edge of one of the many moving staircases that served as the main form of travel between the floors of the castle. Her loud sobbing had quieted down into a quiet whimper. Jungeun slid into place next to her, her hands crossed over her lap. Haseul did not look up.

 

Jungeun spoke first.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Haseul laughed bitterly, a choked, half-hearted thing.

 

“Haven’t you already lied enough for one day?”

 

Jungeun bit her lip.

  
“I mean it.”

 

“I doubt very much that you mean anything. I certainly don’t mean anything to you.”

 

Jungeun put one hand on the shorter girl’s shoulders. Haseul tore it off of her shoulder with both hands and a savage grunt.  
  
“DON’T TOUCH ME!”

 

This had been a very bad idea. Haseul was not thinking clearly, and she was obviously pissed off. Her face was an alarming shade of red. It wouldn’t surprise Jungeun if the girl decided to whip her wand out and curse Jungeun right on the spot. Instead, she wrung her hands and stared resolutely at the ground, several feet below. Jungeun wondered what was going through her head.

 

“So, Jinsoul, huh? I guess she’s a good pick. Same age as me. Prettier, smarter, the whole package. But maybe she can’t give you what you want emotionally. So you decide to keep me around too, so you can get all the flowers and sweets and kind gestures you want while you get everything else from her. I was just something on the side, I guess. I don’t know what I was expecting. It was foolish to love you the way I did. I guess I should be apologizing to you.”

 

Haseul continued on this way for several minutes, ranting about her own insecurities and self-doubts, and about how horrible a person she really was. It made Jungeun want to cry. Instead, she sat there stoically and listened. And when she was finished, she looked Haseul in the eye and said, “There’s nothing wrong with you, Haseul. I was a terrible girlfriend and I should have let you go weeks ago instead of stringing you along like this.”

 

Haseul straightened up, her face grim. The tears on her face had dried up. She clambered to her feet, eyes straight ahead. Haseul turned on her heel and walked up the steps. She didn’t spare a second glance for Jungeun. She did however, lean back to whisper two words, two words like ice daggers to Jungeun’s heart.

 

“Damn right.”

 

Haseul shuffled to the Hufflepuff basement like a zombie. Her head was devoid of thoughts, her heart of emotions. There was one thing she wanted now. She knew it was wrong, and against everything she had been taught, but the only thing she wanted in the world was to make Kim Jungeun hurt the way she had hurt her.

 

She didn’t come up with an idea until three days later, when she saw the arrangement of warning posters outside of the Three Broomsticks Inn in Hogsmeade. Apparently, there was a werewolf on the loose, and it had last been seen heading up the hill towards the Forbidden forest.

 

It was perfect.

 

Haseul would lure Jinsoul to the edge of the Forbidden Forest and then scare the living daylights out of her with a cleverly timed attack by a ‘wolf’. That’d send the traitor screaming down the hill and they’d all have a funny story to share later on. Jinsoul deserved the humiliation after what they’d done to her. She’d come up with something for Jungeun later. It was a great idea.

 

Hyunjin thought Haseul’s plan was a decidedly bad idea. Well, idiotic was a more accurate word. She knew the older girl was pissed, and she had every right to be, but the way Hyunjin saw it, there were really only two ways this little prank could go: Jinsoul would realize the costume was a fake and she’d laugh her ass off, or they’d scare her and she’d be mildly embarassed for a couple of days before she realized what a moron Haseul was actually being.

 

Hyunjin didn’t voice any of this to Haseul, however. The girl was notorious for being short-tempered and explosive whenever she was in a bad mood. This definitely qualified.

 

Hyunjin just set to work on the costume. She transfigured a few stolen sheets from the school laundry room into a realistic looking pelt. Her and Heejin would work together to create a convincing illusion. Heejin would wear the costume, and Hyunjin would produce the special effects necessary in order to make Jinsoul crap her pants. That included sounds like howling, barking and even the slobber that needed to drip from the costume’s mouth. Hyunjin was an expert at this sort of thing, especially for a second year. Her and Heejin were what others called “power students”. Hyunjin enjoyed the attention.

 

Hyunjin couldn’t help but feel a little guilty about pulling this on one of her friends. But then she reminded herself of what Jinsoul had willingly participated in, and she felt a little less guilty. She just hoped everyone could make up with each other after all this was over.

 

All of Vivi’s friends were at odds with each other. It had happened so suddenly she hardly noticed at first. But Haseul wasn’t speaking with Jungeun, and neither were Heejin or Hyunjin. Jinsoul and Jungeun both made attempts to talk to the other girls, but the responses were frigid at best. And all of them had let Vivi drop out of their notice in the middle of their little cold war. Vivi was upset. Her exams were coming up, and all of her study partners had decided to fight each other instead of taking care of their friends.  She gave up trying to speak to them as a lost cause, and instead retreated to the company of the only other girl who spoke Chinese in the entire school.

  
Coco was a childhood friend of hers. She had moved to the UK when the two of them were still fairly young. Vivi had been convinced that she would never see the girl again. But fate was funny like that. Vivi had spent most of her magical education under the tutelage of an expert witch back in China. Actually, much of the reason why she was here at Hogwarts instead of back home was because of that witch. The old lady had died a few months ago, of a heart attack, of all things. Her parents had pushed her to finish her education overseas, instead of stagnating without a teacher. They’d always wanted the best for her. They were good parents, Vivi guessed.

 

Her and Coco walked side by side, arm in arm in the comfortable way that only happens between the deepest of friends. Coco’s ponytail bounced playfully in the wind.

 

The two of them were out on the grounds. They’d just gotten out of class. Coco smiled at Vivi and asked her a question that would change both of their lives forever.

 

“The full moon’s gonna be out tonight. You want to come see it with me?”

 

Vivi answered without hesitation.

  
“Of course!”

 

Students weren’t supposed to be outside after hours, but she’d take the point loss if it meant she got to hang out with Coco.

 

Vivi and Coco spent some more time sightseeing before they went back inside to prepare for the night ahead of them. They spoke excitedly in Chinese, eagerly anticipating what they’d get up to outside of their respective dorms. It was going to be a night to remember.

 

Jinsoul clutched the letter to her chest tightly. Jungeun had made up with Haseul and all was forgiven on her end! That was the best news she’d gotten all day. Now the three of them could be friends again. It might be a little awkward at first, but they’d adjust. And Jinsoul could love Jungeun freely and openly now.

 

The letter said that Jungeun would meet her at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It asked her to wait there for her, so they could enjoy their first real romantic moments alone and in silence. If Jinsoul thought anything was strange or suspicious about the letter, those thoughts were brushed away by the oncoming tide of happiness she felt in every atom of her being.

 

She thanked the owl that had delivered the letter and sent it on it’s way. She had a rendezvous to get ready for!

 

Haseul grinned as she sat behind the twin trees that marked the boundary of the Forbidden Forest. She wouldn’t actually step into the forest. Neither would Hyunjin or Heejin. They were meters away, safely behind a rock. Haseul would just use a mirror spell to make it appear as if there was a werewolf coming towards Jinsoul. That would be enough to freak her out. Haseul glanced at the rock, where Hyunjin gave her a thumbs up. They were good to go. Now they just had to wait for Jinsoul to appear. Haseul kept her eyes on her watch.

 

The seconds ticked by slowly while Jinsoul waited for night to come. She whiled her time away by chatting with the funny little first year she had taken under her wing. Choerry had made fast friends with both her and Jungeun and just about everyone else in their little circle of friends. But she was closer to the two of them than anyone else, likely because of their mutual fascination with practical jokes.

 

“I’m glad the three of you aren’t going to be enemies forever. It was all a misunderstanding, right?” Choerry looked up at Jinsoul and bit her lip.

 

“Yeah. I didn’t mean to hurt Haseul that way. Neither of us did...it’s just...complicated.”

 

Choerry nodded. She furrowed her eyebrows.

 

“Hey, wait, what are you going to do on the school grounds at night?”

 

Jinsoul shook her head and pressed her index finger to her lips. “Shh. Talk to your mama.”

 

Choerry looked around the room and shrugged her shoulders. “What? I don’t get it.”

 

Jinsoul shrugged, a coy smile on her face. “Give it some time.”

 

“O-kayyyy….if you say so.”

 

Jinsoul pulled out a sparkling sapphire dress from her seemingly bottomless trunk. It was enchanted, of course. Only the best from the Jung family for their little girl. She held it to her chest and smiled brightly.

 

“What do you think?”

 

Choerry leaned back against the pillows she had laid out on their mutual meeting space-- a seemingly empty room on the second floor of the castle. No one came in here, so the girls had decided to spruce up the bare stone room with their own little affectations. It was a good place to hang out.

 

“I think Jungeun will like you no matter what you’re wearing.”

 

Jinsoul nodded, and then put a finger up to her chin thoughtfully. “You’re right. I’m still wearing the dress, though.”

 

Choerry gave the older girl an infectious grin, and true to form, an identical grin appeared on Jinsoul’s face. They stayed like that for several seconds, until Jinsoul cracked up and started laughing. Choerry soon followed.

 

Everything was in place, now. Night was quickly descending upon the school, and everyone waw where they were supposed to be. Haseul was crouched behind the twin trees, cloaked in a chameleon charm. Anyone who passed by would have to really look to notice her, especially in the dark. Hyunjin and Haseul were still around the corner, ready for Haseul’s signal to start the illusion up.

 

The only thing that was missing was the girl in question. Haseul rapped her hands against the rough bark of the tree. They’d been out here for hours, and no sign of her yet. It was starting to get cold--the last traces of winter in the air. She rubbed her palms together.

 

Haseul was just starting to have second thoughts when she appeared. She was wearing an absolutely dazzling blue dress that sparkled even in the faint light of the moon. She had to admit that the way the blonde was wearing the dress made her feel a little jealous.

 

The blonde stepped up to the very edge of the boundary between the school grounds and the dark forest. With a hand above her eyes, she leaned in and peered into the darkness of the forest.

 

Haseul realized this was her chance. With a giddy intake of breath, she gave Hyunjin and Heejin the signal. The moment she did, Jinsoul started screaming.

 

Haseul whipped her head around. The illusion was taking a swing at the blonde girl, standing upright on its hind legs. The slavering, roaring mass of fur and limbs was a sight to behold. Jinsoul looked very small and very afraid underneath its mass.  Good. She deserved a good scare. Haseul turned to face Hyunjin and Heejinl and gave them a thumbs up.

  
She realized something was very wrong when she saw that Heejin wasn’t in costume and Hyunjin was standing there with her mouth agape. There was no way they could be doing what Haseul had just seen, which meant…

 

Haseul drew her wand and leaped over the tree, sprinting towards the creature that was attacking her friend. Internally, she screamed at herself. How could she have been so stupid? The Forbidden Forest was forbidden for a reason. Now she’d gone and hurt one of her friends in a way she couldn’t hope to repair.

 

She leveled her wand on the massive grey wolf-man-thing and practically screamed, “STUPEFY!!!” She wouldn’t be surprised if even the Slytherins down in their little dungeon could hear her.

 

Jungeun’s brisk jog turned into a full-on sprint when she heard the screaming. Choerry had spoken to her in the hallway while she was heading back to the dorms. She wanted to know why she wasn’t headed out to the Forbidden Forest to meet Jinsoul. That got Jungeun’s attention immediately. She had just been heading out in that direction when the screaming began.

 

Jungeun’s legs pumped up and down furiously, her breathing stable but hurried. A million thoughts raced through her head. Had Haseul gone off the deep end and attacked her own friend in some misguided attempt to get back at Jungeun? God, she hoped not. She loved the both of them too much to even think about it.

 

The shadowy mass of trees that was the Forbidden Forest was rapidly growing larger in her sight. Jungeun’s robe billowed behind her.

 

Soon, she was at the copse of trees that marked the edge of the Forbidden forest. The scene was utter chaos. Haseul, Hyunjin and Heejin were firing off stunning spells with reckless abandon. The massive, raging beast at the center of the clearing was howling at the moon, and beneath it was a tangle of blonde hair stained red by blood. Jungeun felt the cold grip of fear close around her heart.

 

“JINSOUL!”

 

Someone was calling her name. She could hear that, out of the one good ear that she still had left. Her entire world was pain, blistering and gushing. She couldn’t feel the left side of her face. Actually, she was pretty sure that part of her had disappeared into the sharp-toothed maw of the werewolf. Absurdly, she wondered how she had tasted. She hoped it choked on her.

 

How had everything gone so wrong?

 

So stupid. She really believed that Jungeun was going to meet her there, under cover of night, to make up with her. Jungeun wasn’t that romantic. This was all some cruel prank, meant to get revenge on her for hurting Haseul. Maybe Haseul had even done it herself. She wanted her out of the way so she could get Jungeun back.

 

Jinsoul’s head slammed into the hard earth beneath her as a scream ripped out of her lungs. Blood, warm and bitter, slipped into her open mouth. Jinsoul blinked furiously, trying to get the dark substance out of her eyes. Somewhere, miles away, four girls were slinging their best stunning spells at the beast above. It was too late, though. Jinsoul was sure of it. She was going to die. She turned onto her side, curling up into the fetal position. The side of her blue dress was an ill shade of purple now. Her body was partially submerged into the shallow puddle of blood that had begun to form underneath her.  The pain in her face was gone, replaced by a numbness that she thought was probably worse. At least the pain was something.

 

Incredibly, the werewolf stopped its assault on her, looked up at the moon, howled, and then fell over. They’d actually done it. Her saviors had defeated the monster through sheer numbers. A voice she identified as Haseul’s breathed a sigh of relief, and then, “Holy shit, Jinsoul!”

 

The girl ran over to her side and pushed her onto her back. Jinsoul winced in pain. Haseul brushed her hair out of her face, and her panicked expression turned into one of pure horror. “Oh my god…” Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes as she covered her mouth with a single hand. Jinsoul tried to speak, to make a joke to reassure the girl, but nothing left her hoarse, dry throat.  Haseul looked over her shoulder urgently, “Heejin, run to the castle and get help. Hyunjin, you go to the alchemy cabinet in our little hideout and find silver and dittany. Go, and get back here as fast as you can.”

 

The unseen girls began sprinting, their feet crunching against the dry, dead leaves that had gathered on the forest floor.

 

Someone else crouched down next to her and placed a hand in hers. It felt right there.

 

“Hey, honey. I know everything looks pretty bad right now, but we’re gonna help you through this, okay? Heejin and Hyunjin have gone for help. They should be back soon.” She looked around, at the dark forest that seemed to grow darker with every passing moment. “In the meantime, we need to get you out of here, before that thing wakes up.” Jungeun squeezed her hand tightly, and Jinsoul instantly felt better.

 

Jungeun glared at Haseul, a glare that said, ‘you’re dead after this is all over’. Haseul did her best to ignore it. Jinsoul felt Haseul’s hands close around her ankles and Jungeun’s beneath her shoulders. The two of them struggled to lift her up. Jinsoul coughed. Finally, words came.

 

“Don’t. Leave me here.”

 

The look Jungeun gave her was heartbreaking. Haseul hadn’t stopped crying either, but those tears were guilty. Jinsoul decided to focus on Jungeun’s face. She needed the strength.

 

“It’s the full moon. That’s the only way you get a werewolf walking around. That thing bit me. Scratches are okay. Bites aren’t. It means..” She coughed again. “It means I’m one too. Or I will be very soon. You have to leave me and warn the school. If anybody dies because of me…” She shook her head weakly. “You understand?”

 

Jungeun nodded respectfully and let Jinsoul down onto the forest floor. Haseul was a lot more reluctant. “There’s help on the way... and it’s the same full moon...is that even allowed?”

 

Jinsoul grimaced and pointed to what was left of her face with an enfeebled finger. “This says it is. You should go.”

 

Haseul nodded, too, and she let Jinsoul’s legs drop to the ground. Jungeun pointed in the direction of the castle. “Come on, let’s go. We don’t have much time.” The two girls ran off with determined expressions on their faces.

 

They wouldn’t make it back in time.

 

Jinsoul had been a lot further on in the change than she had let on. Already, she could feel her bones beginning to shift underneath her skin. Sharp, dagger like claws were splitting the skin under her fingernails. She held back a scream, for her friends’ sake. And then her jaw split apart and lengthen, jagged teeth tearing through soft tissue. She screamed, but it wasn’t quite human anymore. It was the roar of a beast and the screaming of a girl all at once. She squeezed her eyes shut and felt tears drip across her mangled face.

 

She passed out from the pain shortly afterwards.

 

Vivi and Coco had been having a good time across the school grounds. They were currently showing off their best spells, trying to score points in a useless little contest. They used spells that Hogwarts certainly hadn’t taught them in their time there. These were old spells used by their ancestors in a much different world. They made jade out of water and turned the moonlight into a beautiful butterfly. These were the moments Vivi lived for.

 

“I really missed you.” Vivi’s words, spoken earnestly to a smiling, encouraging face.

Coco winked at her, and then, “I know. I missed you too. And China. How’s your mom?”

 

Vivi rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “No change,” she said finally.

 

Both of them giggled at that.

 

Their little bout of merriment was disturbed when they heard the screaming from the forest. Coco put her wand down, and the beautiful sculpture she had been crafting out of water dissipated into the lake. Her eyes were huge. Vivi was sure that hers were as well.

 

“What was that?”

 

Coco shrugged. She shook her head, ever so slightly, and then she picked up her wand again.

 

“Somebody might be in trouble! Shouldn’t we go help?”

 

Coco looked at her like she had two heads. “Are you crazy? That’s the Forbidden Forest. It’s forbidden for a reason. There are all sorts of creepy, disgusting, killer things in there. If you’re playing in there at night, you have to expect that kind of stuff. Besides, I’m sure someone’s coming to help.”

 

Vivi shrugged and returned to her wandplay. “If you say so. It still doesn’t feel right.”

 

Coco put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, you trust me, right? So, trust me. I want to live. And I’m sure you do, too.”

 

There was some more shouting from the forest, and then through the gaps between the trees, Vivi could see red, flashing lights. Someone was using stunning spells. She did her best to put it out of her mind and returned to the contest. The moment she did, the scream returned, but louder and harsher this time. Vivi looked at Coco with pleading eyes.

 

“Okay, fine, we’ll go over there if that’s what you really want. It’s probably just a couple of spiders anyway.” Vivi smiled as Coco pulled herself to her feet.  Vivi followed the girl along the water’s edge.

 

As they approached the forest, two indistinct figures raced out of the trees. A few minutes later, they were followed by two more. Coco shrugged and turned to face Vivi. “I guess that’s everybody out of there. I told you it was something harmless.” Vivi still wasn’t sure. “We should check, at least.”

 

Coco pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger and sighed. “Anything for you, Vivi.” She said it sarcastically, but Vivi knew that she meant it. “Thank you.”

 

They turned around to start again when they heard a third scream, this one the most bloodcurdling of all. It was somewhere between human and beast, an awful sound Vivi wished she could unhear. A few moments later, between one heartbeat and the next, it had transformed into something entirely bestial. To Vivi, it sounded almost like… a wolf?

 

Coco was shaking with fear now. In a small voice, she turned to Vivi and said, “Please, Kahei. Let’s get out of here. I don’t like this.” Vivi nodded, and the two of them began to  run in the opposite direction.

  
Vivi glanced over her shoulder. She swore she could see neon yellow eyes staring at her from the trees. And suddenly, they were closer. The beast had caught their scent, and it was not going to let them go. Vivi screamed. The castle seemed very far away suddenly.

 

They burst into a full-on sprint, and the beast followed. It was out in the open now, where Vivi and Coco could both see it. The thing was absolutely enormous in terms of height, but it was lean enough to have the advantage of speed. They stood absolutely no chance if that thing caught them. Vivi held onto Coco’s hand for dear life. She was slightly ahead of the other girl, but she wasn’t about to let her go under any circumstances.

 

The werewolf went from hundreds of meters away to dozens in a matter of minutes. Vivi and Coco, on the other hand, were beginning to get tired. There was no way they’d be able to keep up the pace, not in time to get into the safety of the castle.

 

Vivi was breathing hard, her chest rising and falling rapidly. She wanted to stop and catch her breath, but there wasn’t any time. The castle seemed so close now. Just a few more meters, and she’d be safe. They’d both be safe.

 

Vivi’s hand was suddenly free. She glanced over her shoulder, and what she saw there made her heart stop. Coco had tripped over a loose rock and scraped her knee. Blood was pooling inside of the wound. Her wand had fallen a few feet away, too far for her to reach in the few seconds she had available to her. The beast was less than a meter away now. She looked Vivi straight in the eye and her lips began to move in silent words that Vivi would never hear.

 

Vivi had often heard it said that time slowed down when your loved ones were in danger. She found that to be untrue on that night, under the pale moonlight. Coco’s pale neck was crushed between the jaws of the rabid, slavering beast that had come after them. She didn’t even have time to scream or whine, or anything else. The werewolf whipped its head back and forth savagely, causing Coco’s body to flail around like a ragdoll. Her eyes had rolled into the back of her head, leaving blank white and red orbs staring out of her open eyelids. Her foot twitched senselessly, sending her tiny black shoe flying onto the ground.

 

Vivi wanted to scream, to cry, to do anything. Instead, she just stared in silence, and watched the beast destroy her friends body. She didn’t blink once. She let herself absorb every detail. She had done this. She had insisted on going to check out the Forbidden Forest and now Coco was dead.

 

She collapsed onto her knees and watched as the beast let go of Coco’s neck, freeing the blood that had been trapped there. Like an unwelcome latecomer to a party, the blood burst forth and spilled onto Coco’s pretty black and white dress, staining it all a dark red.

 

Vivi stared with unseeing eyes at the corpse that wasn’t her friend. She didn’t move, she didn’t breathe, she didn’t cry. She just existed, every thought in her mind obliterated by sheer shock.

 

She waited for death on the grass.

 

The beast stalked over to her, slowly. Deliberately. Its evil yellow eyes stared into her soul and judged her unworthy. Its jaw opened to reveal bloodied yellow teeth. Its breath was fetid and stank of death. Vivi never closed her eyes.

 

“STUPEFY!”

 

The spell struck the wolf in the back. It hardly seemed to notice. And then another came, and another. It turned from its prey and snarled at the attackers. Without pause, they continued the relentless string of hexes. The werewolf howled, and then it fell on its side and fought no more.

 

Vivi remained there, on her knees, while the people who had rescued her moved in. There were several professors, including Headmistress Mcgonagall, along with Jungeun. The blonde girl ran over to the side of the wolf, hardly even noticing the corpse that she had to walk over in order to get to her. Two of the male teachers picked up the wolf and began to carry it into the castle. Vivi didn’t think much of it...she hadn’t thought much for a while.  
  
Finally, some of the teachers seemed to realize there was a dead student lying there. Some of them screamed. Some of them cried. They all seemed sad. What did they have to be sad about? It wasn’t their friend that had died.

  
Respectfully, they wrapped Coco’s body in a sheet and put it on top of a magically conjured gurney. The gurney lifted off of the ground with no visible support and floated up the hill and out of Vivi’s sight. The last two people left now were the Headmistress and herself.

 

The Headmistress put a hand on her shoulder and crouched down so that they were eye level with each other. She said something that Vivi couldn’t hear. Her eyes were watery, but sympathetic. Funny. Vivi had never seen the headmistress cry.

 

The headmistress wrapped Vivi in an embrace she did not return. They stayed that way for a long time, until Vivi fell asleep and the headmistress carried her into the castle, and into a life that was forever changed.

 


	5. In Which Hyunjin Makes A Mistake

 

**THE SHRIEKING SHACK**

 

Fifteen minutes had passed since Vivi started talking. Choerry had moved Yeojin up against a wall, so she could more properly see what was going on. The dark haired girl was staring intensely at Vivi, her fingers running fervently over the surface of her pale brown wand. She was watching carefully, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

 

Haseul, Vivi and Jungeun had gone back and forth over their story in the intervening time. Vivi had gone first, followed by Haseul, and then by Jungeun. None of them were paying any real attention to the changing girl in the corner. Jinsoul’s pain had gotten so bad that she had stopped screaming. She had resorted to crawling along the floorboards in an attempt to get into the room at the far end of the shack.

 

Yeojin watched this all with watery, tear-filled eyes. She could hardly believe that this had happened to all of them. It all seemed so tragic. She wanted to give Vivi a hug. It was the least the poor girl deserved.

 

Sooyoung stood apart from the other three, her wand flicking back and forth between each of them as they went through their story. Her face went from curious, to disgusted, to horrified, to disgusted again. She was clearly ready to zap someone.

 

The tension was nearly tangible.

 

“Just tell me why I should not kill this beast.” Vivi jerked her wand in the direction of the crawling, changing girl. Her voice was harsh and unyielding, even through her thick accent.

 

Jungeun sniffed. Haseul snuck a glance over at the blonde. Her face was wet. It was clear that she was uncharacteristically affected by the story the three of them had just shared. Haseul didn’t look too far away from tears herself. 

 

“Because...because I love her.” The statement came out more as a question than a declaration, as if Jungeun was unsure if that was a satisfactory reason to spare her life.

 

Vivi shook her head. “No. I loved Coco. She’s dead. Her killer should be too.”

 

Jinsoul whimpered as she dug another clawed hand into the rotten wood of the floorboards. 

 

Haseul grimaced, and then she turned back to Vivi. “You shouldn’t kill her because it’s wrong. What happened was a terrible, terrible accident, and I’m so sorry for my part in it, but Jinsoul is human. You can’t kill her.You’re a good person.”

Vivi bowed her head, contemplating the floor for a brief moment before bringing it back up again. When she did, her eyes were filled with a resolute determination. “She doesn’t look very human right now.”

 

Everyone turned to look at Jinsoul. Grey, mattted fur had spread across her body and claws had burst through her fingertips. Her blonde hair was beginning to fall out in clumps. Vivi was right. The girl looked bad.

 

Vivi took advantage of the situation immediately. She pointed her wand at Jungeun and shouted “EXPELLIARMUS!” A bright blue spark exploded in Jungeun’s hand and her wand was thrown from her reach. Jungeun whipped her head around and Sooyoung stepped forward, ready to attack. Haseul held her back and gave her a warning look. Sooyoung shook her head and ler her hand drop to her side. 

 

Vivi rushed Jungeun, who threw herself over Jinsoul’s transforming body, shielding her from any kind of magical attack. “No!” She yelled at the pink-haired girl. 

 

Vivi hesitated. She looked...confused. Yeojin thought that she probably only wanted to kill Jinsoul. Jungeun wasn’t part of the deal, apparently.

 

Jungeun’s tears began to flow in earnest. “Y-you can’t. She’s a good person. She’s done her best to make up for what she did….but you can’t hold her responsible. She has no control over herself when she’s like that. She’s sorry. S-so sorry.” Jungeun looked like a mess, snot dribbling down her face as she pleaded for the life of her girlfriend. “I-I’m sorry, too. I messed up. I started this. If you’re going to kill anyone…”She looked directly into Vivi’s eyes, “It should be me.”

 

Haseul’s jaw dropped and she made a noise that was halfway between worried and indignant. 

 

Vivi frowned deeply. “That is not...I do not…” She furrowed her eyebrows. The girl paced back and forth and clapped her hands to her head. “NO!”  She tossed the silver blade in her hand to the floor. “Fine. Go.” She pointed to the room Jinsoul had been struggling to get into.

 

Jungeun didn’t hesitate. She grabbed Jinsoul by the armpits. Haseul scrambled over to her and lifted Jinsoul’s legs. The two of them carried her into the room beyond with swiftness. Yeojin didn’t see much of what happened afterwards, because they closed the door behind them. They came out a few moments later, no worse for wear. They did look exhausted, however.

 

Vivi had retreated to a corner, her face buried in her hands. Sooyoung hugged Chaewon tightly to her chest. The poor girl was shaking from the intensity of the confrontation. Yeojin thought that she shouldn’t have been here in the first place.

 

Haseul crouched down next to Vivi and put her hand on her shoulder. “”Hey, you did the right thing.” Her voice was gentle and soothing. “It’s okay. The only reason I came out here was to keep you from doing something you’d regret. And look….you regret it already, right? That’s a good thing.” 

  
Vivi gripped Haseul’s arm as if it was the only thing keeping her from drowning. Her lower lip was trembling. Finally, the girl let out a loud sob. Yeojin wondered how long she had kept that in, how long she had restrained herself from expressing her true grief over her friend’s death. She was certainly expressing it now. Yeojin looked away. She didn’t need to see that.

 

Jungeun sat down next to Choerry and herself. She struggled to wipe her tears from her face, to put on a brave face for the two of them. She wasn’t doing a great job of it. She was clearly shaken from the intensity of the night’s events, and from recounting the tale of what had happened nearly a full year ago now.

 

They stayed that way for a while, each of them trying to give each other some comfort after what had just happened. They did their best to ignore the sounds from the room at the end of the hall. By silent agreement, they all stayed in the Shrieking Shack through the night, long enough to hear the screams get progressively louder and louder, and long enough to hear them whither away into the whimperings of a very scared girl.

 

**THE DAYS AFTER**

 

They didn’t speak to each other on their way out of the shack.  They were too focused on digesting their own thoughts. Instead, they attended their classes as normal. If any of the faculty noticed anything out of the ordinary about this, they failed to mention it.. 

 

Yeojin’s paralyzation had long since worn off by the time she made it out from underneath the Whomping Willow. She walked hand in hand with Jungeun back to their dorms. They had a lot to discuss. They didn’t.

 

Yeojin didn’t say much of anything to anyone until she was back in the great hall, eating breakfast. She couldn’t look at any of them the same way ever again. Well, except for Sooyoung and Chaewon, but they didn’t really count. She rapped her spoon against the wooden table, contemplating. Once again, she needed to say something to someone. Preferably someone who wasn’t there. She needed to get out of her own head in order to process this.

 

She spotted Hyunjin sitting on her own. It was a rare sight, but a welcome one in this case. Yeojin grabbed her plate and plopped down on the seat next to her. Hyunjin blinked.

 

“Huh? What are you doing here?”

 

Yeojin placed her spoon on the table carefully. She looked Hyunjin directly in the eye and asked her, “You were there that night. The night Jinsoul got bitten and Coco died.” Hyunjin raised her eyebrows. “How do you know that? And why?”

Yeojin let her chin rest on her hand. “Haseul told me. I saw Jinsoul change.” It was part of the truth, but it was enough.

 

“Well, why are you asking me, then? It was a stupid mistake and we all want to forget about it.” Her voice was slightly unsteady as she spoke. Hyunjin kept her gaze firmly on her bacon. 

 

Yeojin put her hand on Hyunjin’s. “I know. But I think I saw something last week...I think I saw Coco’s ghost.” 

 

Hyunjin’s eyes lit up. “She has a ghost? Where?”

 

“Near the library. I saw her. I mean, it has to be her, right? If she’d been around for longer, more people would know.”

 

Yeojin led Hyunjin to the spot where the two of them had had their little ‘conversation’ a few days earlier, but she was nowhere to be found. They asked around, but nobody seemed to have seen her. Few of them even realized what Yeojin was talking about.

 

“I don’t get it. It’s like she’s just disappeared, like a….”

 

Hyunjin smirked. “Like a ghost?”

 

Yeojin nodded and rolled her eyes. “Durr-hurr, yes. Well, we’ll have to come back later. In the meantime...I’ve got to talk to some people.”

 

It turned out that Jungeun had gotten the same idea. She sent letters to each of the people who had been inside the cabin (and friends), inviting them to meet up in their old hideout the next afternoon. One full day later, Yeojin waited outside the little hole in the wall with bated breath. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen now, but she hoped they could come to a resolution. If things went bad inside, they were going to go  _ really  _ bad. 

 

Haseul showed up first, followed by Heejin and Hyunjin. Haseul refused to look Yeojin in the eye. She seemed ashamed. It was an appropriate expression, Yeojin thought. Sooyoung, Jiwoo and Chaewon came next. Sooyoung looked skeptical with her arms crossed over her chest. Jiwoo seemed troubled, her mouth pulled into a thin line. Chaewon cowered behind the two of them. She clearly didn’t want to be there. Vivi was there a few seconds later, her hair unkempt and dirty. She hadn’t changed her clothes in the time since the shack. She looked tired, but then again, she always looked tired. She glared at Haseul and shoved her hands into her pockets. Finally, Jungeun, Jinsoul and Choerry arrived. Jinsoul refused to look anyone in the eye. Jungeun greeted them all carefully and opened the entrance with a tap of her wand.

 

Instantly, the tiny hole in the wall expanded to a full-on doorway. The eleven girls stepped through in a hurry, none of them wanting to be left behind. It must have been a funny picture to an outside observer. Yeojin didn’t find it very amusing.

 

The room inside the hole was fairly spacious, for a secret hideout. There were beds stacked up in a corner. Pillows were strewn about carelessly, and a flag on the center of the back wall featured all four house symbols. There was a tiny kitchen space and a few cabinets on the left side of the room, with a dining space that seated six in the center. Yeojin thought it was pretty neat. She took a seat on one of the mattresses. Orange was always her favorite color.

 

Haseul took a look around and, as if by muscle memory, began lighting the jar candles that were interspersed around the room. Soon, the entire place smelled of cinnamon and pine needles. Yeojin shut her eyes and let the smell seep into her nostrils.  The other girls took seats at the table and on the pillows on the ground. Vivi sat next to Yeojin. She probably didn’t trust anyone else in the room.

 

There was a brief moment of silence before Jungeun stepped to the center of the room and said, “So, we need to talk.” That was an understatement.  There was another brief pause as the girls all looked at each other, and then they began to speak all at once.

 

“What the hell was that?”

  
“Who do you think you are?”

  
“Does the headmistress know?”

 

“We need to figure this out!”

 

Jungeun watched helplessly as the situation devolved into chaos. Luckily for her, Jinsoul was there to bring everything back in focus. The blonde girl got out of her chair and gently pushed Jungeun out of the way. The instant she did, all eyes were back on her.

 

“It’s okay, Jungeun. Have a seat. I can speak for myself.”

 

The younger girl nodded and sat down at the table with Haseul, Choerry and Sooyoung. 

 

Jinsoul coughed once, twice, three times to clear her throat. Every eye in the room was fixed on her in silent concentration. She fidgeted a little, fiddling with her fingers in an uncharacteristic bout of shyness.

 

“U-um...Oh, this is actually kind of scary.” She looked down, gathered herself, and then she started again. “I’m a werewolf. You all know this now. I know that’s scary. I do. It’s also a big secret to share and to keep. I didn’t want anyone else to know, because I was afraid it would change the way you thought of me. So, I’m sorry.” She looked down at the floor again, her cheeks flushed with color.

 

Haseul shook her head. “Don’t be sorry. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who should apologize to you, again. Because...what I did…”

 

Jinsoul put a hand on her shoulder and gave Haseul a warm look. The Hufflepuff quieted. 

 

“It changed the way my parents thought of me. They...threw me out of the house. Now, no one knew that except for me and Jungeun. So, that’s something I can share with you guys, to make up for the bigger secret, the real one.”

 

Sooyoung shook her head. “You don’t have to…”

 

Jinsoul gave her a small frown. “No, I do. I have to get this all off of my chest.

 

Her white scars gleamed in the amber light of the candles. Yeojin could see the deep bite marks where the wolf’s teeth had penetrated her skin. She felt a great sense of pity rise up within her.

 

“I really don’t want this to change the way you think of me...and…” She looked Haseul directly in the eye again. “Maybe now that enough time has passed...maybe we could all try being friends again?”

 

Haseul stared intently at her shiny black shoes. Sooyoung watched carefully, hand resting on her chin. 

 

“Or for the first time, in some cases.”

 

Jinsoul gave her a thin smile. “Yes, that too.” She looked up at the ceiling, as if in deep contemplation. “Uh, I think that’s it. Someone else should talk now.” Jinsoul tossed a glance at Vivi as she sat down next to Jungeun.

 

Nobody jumped at the opportunity to speak in front of the other girls. Yeojin considered her hands. Directly or indirectly, she had been the cause of the confrontation at the Shrieking Shack. She should say a few words about that. Or maybe about what they should do. She was no leader, and she was pretty sure nobody liked listening to her, but she had already made a difference in this little circle of friends. Maybe she could make one more.

 

To her surprise, she was on her feet quickly. Haseul’s eyes widened as she saw Yeojin walk up to the head of the room. Similar looks of surprises were painted on several of the other girls faces. Just about the only one who didn’t look surprised was Jungeun. She looked...satisfied? Proud, maybe?

 

Yeojin felt surprisingly comfortable getting up there. She was a natural at public speaking, or so her teachers had always told her. She never quite got why others might be uncomfortable with it. She stood up there, arms at her side, and looked over her audience. 

 

“So, Jinsoul’s got a secret. We all know about it. I guess that means its up to each one of us to decide what to do with that secret. We can tell the whole school, or even just a couple of friends. We can make it front page news.” She paused for effect. Jinsoul shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

 

“Or we can do the right thing. We can keep this secret. For Jinsoul. I think...we have to be responsible for this. We have to protect her. Who knows what could happen if somebody else knew? Jinsoul doesn’t deserve to get attacked for something she has no control over.”

 

Yeojin looked directly at Vivi as she spoke. She knew the girl was angry, and that she had every right to be, but she  _ had  _ almost killed her friend. Someone who knew Jinsoul less might be inclined to do the same. Yeojin had a feeling the wizarding world wasn’t very tolerant of people with differences like that.

 

“I think we should keep this between ourselves. I trust all of you. I hope Jinsoul can do the same.” Yeojin nodded and retook her seat. Maybe words wouldn’t be enough, but she didn’t think any of her friends were cruel enough to sic the world on Jinsoul that way. 

 

Vivi patted Yeojin gently on the back as she sat down. It seemed the girl had returned to being mute in the time since the shack. The thought made Yeojin a little sad.

 

Haseul took the stand next. The girl looked pale, as if public speaking was physically harmful for her. She struggled to find a place for her arms. She moved them over her chest, under her arms, clasped at her waist. Eventually she just decided to leave them hanging by her sides.

 

She coughed. “Yeojin is right. We might not like it, we might not even want it, but the responsibility for Jinsoul’s secret and her wellbeing are on us. If she gets hurt because one of us tells someone else about it, that’s on us.”

 

Sooyoung nodded silently, her chin in one hand, her legs crossed elegantly over each other. Jinsoul buried her face into Jungeun’s shoulder. Jiwoo was listening intently with a plushie pressed tightly to her chest.

 

“So….let’s vote on it.  All those in favor of helping Jinsoul keep her secret, raise your hand.” Ten hands went up. The only exception was Vivi. Her face was downcast, her fingers interlaced over her lap. Yeojin nudged her. The pink-haired girl gave her a warning look. Yeojin held up her hands and backed off.

  
Vivi hesitated for a few more minutes, and then she too raised her hand. 

 

Haseul nodded and clapped her hands together once. “That’s it, then. We’ll keep your secret, Jinsoul.” She beamed at the blonde. Jinsoul smiled wanly.

 

It turned out that keeping a secret was a lot more work than any of them had made it out to be. Yeojin nearly blurted the secret out in the middle of the Slytherin commons during a conversation with Heejin. They all had to keep their heads down in order to make sure nothing slipped out. 

 

It was hard.

 

People noticed the changes in behavior. It was hard not to, considering how they avoided speaking to everyone now. The teasing (read: bullying) from Yeojin’s “fellow” Slytherins had started up again. Apparently, enough time had passed that they could justify continuing their behavior. Yeojin exited the castle one fine afternoon, looking to enjoy the crisp Autumn air on her own time, when one of the second years pushed her into a puddle of mud, face first. Yeojin spent the rest of the night trying to get the stains out of her robes.

 

The only real upside to this secret-keeping was the fact that they all got to spend more time with each other.  The old lair saw a lot more activity in the days that followed, more activity than it had seen in over a year. Jiwoo took to decorating the room with girly little plushies she had gotten from claw machines over the years. Yeojin thought it added a nice touch.

 

Her and Hyunjin had taken to searching for the ghost that had mysteriously disappeared, although they didn’t have much luck. Day after day, after classes ended, they would head to the same spot outside of the library, with no more success than the day before. And so it went, until the day she appeared to them in the strangest place imaginable.

 

**_THE GIRL’S BATHROOM, 4TH FLOOR_ **

 

Yeojin tapped her feet against the floor of the girl’s bathroom impatiently. Hyunjin was taking forever in the stall. She shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. She thought the short detour into the bathroom was going to be exactly that. Instead, the two of them had been in this place for almost half an hour while Hyunjin did whatever the heck she was doing in the toilet. It certainly wasn’t using it.

 

“We should be out there, trying to find the ghost! It’s the key. It’s what we need to help Vivi trust us.”

 

Hyunjin fumbled with something inside of the stall, the sound of cloth rusltling against wood. Yeojin looked around, trying to see if this maybe wasn’t all a big joke. 

 

“I agree. But just looking hasn’t worked. We need to be more aggressive...we need to..” She grunted and kicked open the door. Yeojin put a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggle. 

 

Hyunjin had draped a heavy looking black blanket over her shoulders and her face was painted a pure white. She looked ridiculous.

 

“You look ridiculous.”

  
  


Hyunjin shook her head, bright red spots alighting in her cheeks. “Yeah, but that’s the point.”

 

Yeojin raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Huh?”

 

Hyunjin’s lips quirked up. “We haven’t found miss ghost by looking, so I figured we’d get her attention by dressing up.”

 

Yeojin giggled. “You’re a weirdo!”

 

Hyunjin shrugged, “And you’re vertically challenged, but I don’t spend every second of every day pointing that out.”

 

Yeojin huffed and crossed her arms across her chest.  “You can be so mean.”

 

“It’s true.”

 

Hyunjin pulled the blanket up and over her head. She looked like a nesting doll that way. 

 

“So now what? You go ooooooh and hope the ghost comes and finds you? I’m pretty sure real ghosts don’t work that way.” Yeojin hadn’t realized how ridiculous the statement was until it was already out of her mouth. “Wow. Real ghosts. Never thought I’d be seriously talking about real ghosts.”

 

Hyunjin didn’t respond. She was gaping at a spot just behind Yeojin.  Yeojin rolled her eyes. “And I guess the ghost is right behind me, right?”

 

Right.

 

The ghost was standing (or more accurately, floating) behind Yeojin, her arms crossed over her chest. She looked faintly pissed off.  Hyunjin pushed past Yeojin and got right up into the ghost’s face. She beamed.

 

“Hello, Miss Ghost! I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance.” Hyunjin bowed respectfully. Yeojin and the ghost rolled their eyes in unison.

 

Yeojin gave the ghost a small wave. “Nice to see you again.” The ghost nodded. Yeojin could see the faint traces of a smile on her lips. “I figured out your hints. Thank you. You really helped me out. Helped us all out.”

 

Hyunjin took a few steps forward, her massive blanket trailing behind her. She had produced a magnifying glass from god only knows where, and she was currently using it to give the ghost a thorough inspection. When she was done, she put the glass back into the folds of her blanket and clapped her hands. 

 

“Hah!”

 

Yeojin nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden shout. “Jeez, Hyunjin, could you get any quieter?” 

 

Hyunjin mouthed a few words that Yeojin couldn’t possibly hope to hear. “Um, I was being ironic.”

 

Hyunjin shrugged. “Your whole existence is ironic. Anyway, this is definitely Coco. Hi Coco. Nice to see you again.”

 

Coco the ghost slapped her palm against her face. The impact didn’t produce any noise, which Yeojin thought was quite creepy.  Yeojin edged a little closer to Hyunjin. She might not get along with the older girl perfectly, but at least she was still alive.

 

Yeojin looked over the ghost once more, this time with the perspective of someone who knew what had happened to her. The black stain in place of her throat made more sense now, along with the inability to speak. It was probably trauma and not physical limitations that made her so quiet. Physical limitations on a ghost...this was making Yeojin’s head spin.

 

Yeojin suddenly remembered that they were there for a reason.  “

 

“Coco!” The ghost looked directly into Yeojin’s eyes. Yeojin struggled not to look away. The intensity of the stare was nearly unbearable. “There’s someone we need you to meet. Two people, actually.” 

 

Hyunjin and Yeojin had been doing a lot of reading about ghosts and the undead. A lot of it was creepy, useless myths and old wives’ tales, but there was a line of truth that ran through all of them. Ghosts were people with unfinished business. Once they finished their business, they could move on. Most of the ghosts in Hogwarts were folks who had missed their opportunity to finish their business, to pass on peacefully. The people they needed to talk to and the situations they needed to resolve were far in the past, or so far away they were no longer accessible.

 

This was not the case for Coco. Vivi and Jinsoul were right there. Yeojin had decided that if there was one thing that she was going to do with the story Vivi had told her, it was this. One good thing. It wouldn’t put all the bad stuff back in its cage...those scars would stay with the girls forever. But maybe it would be a good first step.

 

Yeojin gave Hyunjin ‘the signal’, a three fingered flick of the wrists. Hyunjin didn’t notice. She was doing her best imitation of a ghost while Coco watched on and cringed. Yeojin tried again. Hyunjin slapped her wrists against her chest. Yeojin sighed and marched over to Hyunjin and slapped her in the face.

 

“What?!”

 

“Go get them, Hyunjin-ah! I’ll keep Coco company.”

 

Hyunjin blushed, visible even through her make-up. “Oh, yeah. That.” She tossed her blanket off of her shoulders and onto the floor. Underneath the blanket, her shoulders were coated in the same fine white powder she had used to make up her face. The girl sprinted out of the room, her embarrassment clear in every inch of her person.

 

Yeojin crossed her arms and leaned against the blue-green fountain at the center of the restroom. It was almost like a piece of art, the way it was sculpted. Yeojin wondered how old it was, and how long it had been since anyone had come in to make improvements to the place. Coco watched her carefully before sitting down next to the girl and holding her hand. The ghost girl’s hand felt like shoving her hand into a bag of fresh ice, cold and bitter. Yeojin forced a smile to her face and tried not to let the ghost know how freaked out she was.

 

It took almost twenty minutes for Hyunjin to come back with the two girls in question. Neither of them looked too pleased at being interrupted, and Vivi looked downright pissed.

 

“What do you…” She was frozen in her tracks as she caught sight of the ghost sitting next to Yeojin. She whispered something in chinese that Yeojin didn’t quite catch, and then she was running, all anger forgotten in her moment of shock.

 

Coco stood up from the fountain and spread her arms. Vivi ran towards her with her arms spread, her eyes full of joy. All of that was dashed when Vivi came out the other side of Coco’s body with nothing but an armful of air.

 

The pink-haired girl gasped audibly. Her brows furrowed and her eyes watered as the full weight of this interaction crashed down upon her. She stared at her hands, as if seeing them fully for the first time.

 

Coco turned around slowly. Her expression was pure pain. Yeojin felt her chest tighten. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. Jinsoul had backed away towards the door, her face transfixed on the scene in front of her. She looked horrified.

 

Hyunjin put a hand on Jinsoul’s back to stop her from leaving the room. The girl whipped her head around to face Hyunjin, eyes wide. The sudden turn made her hair swirl around her like the edge of a golden top.

 

Vivi was clutching her chest. She leaned against the fountain and sobbed, loud, messy, pained sobs. Yeojin frowned. The ghostly shape that was Coco put a hand on Vivi’s shoulder...as much as she could put a hand on anything. Yeojin folded her hands behind her back and looked at Vivi. Now was the time to do something...she needed to give Coco the voice she didn’t have.

 

“She loves you, you know. That’s why she stuck around.” Yeojin was pulling this out of her butt, but Coco didn’t seem to disagree. On the contrary, she nodded. “She wanted to see you again. And…” Yeojin looked directly at Jinsoul. “She wanted to see you. She wants you to forgive yourself.” Again, Yeojin had no idea if any of this was true, but she knew she wanted to see Jinsoul forgive herself. In the weeks since the Shrieking Shack, she had gone from lovable goofball to reserved, tired and curt. Yeojin missed the old Jinsoul. 

 

Vivi turned herself around so she was facing Coco. She whispered something in chinese. Coco ran her ghostly white hands up Vivi’s neck and along her cheeks. Vivi closed her eyes and let herself bask in the sensation of Coco’s touch once more, even if it was only an illusion. Jinsoul took a few stuttering steps towards the ghost. She stumbled like a drunk in a dark room.

 

Coco mouthed the words that she couldn’t speak and Vivi nodded her understanding. Coco turned to face Jinsoul as she fell to her knees next to Vivi. She whined, and then she put her arm around Vivi. Vivi didn’t resist.

 

“I’m s-s-so sorry, Coco. I never meant, I just…” She let the air out of her lungs with a loud whoosh. She was trying very hard not to cry. 

 

Coco crouched down so that she was eye level with both of the girls, and then she put a finger up to Jinsoul’s lips. The girl quieted instantly. The message was clear. 

 

Partially by instinct, partially by a desire to see things resolved, Yeojin began to speak. She didn’t know where the words came from, and she didn’t care. They were good, and they were strong, and they were what everyone needed.

 

“I forgive you. I never blamed either of you in the first place. I want you to see that and to move past it. Be good for me, okay? And thank you.”

 

Something wondrous happened then, something Yeojin would always remember and cherish. 

 

Coco passed on. 

 

It started at her fingertips. They glowed a white brighter than any Yeojin had ever seen. The white light separated into the entire spectrum of colors in their purest, most vivid form. It was difficult to look directly at her now. Her entire spectral body was suffused with that same light. The room was totally silent as she rose up into the air, her eyes closed in a serene expression. The light built and built until it was blinding and Yeojin had no choice but to shield her eyes.

When she opened them again, Coco was gone.

 

Yeojin wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. 

 

**_WINTER COMES TO HOGWARTS CASTLE_ **

 

Yeojin didn’t see much of either Vivi or Jinsoul for the next three days. Neither did anyone else, it seemed. That was probably okay. The girls needed time to process what had just happened. Still, Yeojin couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. She had sprung the situation on them with no warning, and the ghost was gone almost as soon as she had appeared. She hoped they were okay, wherever they had gone off to.

 

In the meantime, she decided to rededicate herself to her studies. Things were starting to come  a little easier to her under Sooyoung’s tutelage. She wasn’t just picking up stuff she had already studied, she was beginning to be able to make connections between different kinds of magic. This made Sooyoung very proud. 

 

Winter had come, and with it the tidings of the holidays. Decorations popped up in nearly every corner of the castle and the grounds. The snow came in hard and fast, and pretty soon almost every inch of the school grounds was shrouded in a cloak of pure white. The sight of the heavenly downpour made Yeojin suddenly and incredibly homesick.

 

After she finished up with classes, she went straight to the commons. She thought she would ask Jungeun if she could borrow her owl again. On the way there, she saw something peculiar.

 

Hyunjin was speaking to a much older woman. The woman had to be at least thirty years old. Her light brown hair was tied up in a neat bun. Interestingly, she was wearing a bright-green leather jacket that was totally garish in comparison to the rest of her get up. Most interesting of all was the fact that she was currently taking notes furiously.

 

Yeojin breathed in sharply. She ducked behind a nearby column and tried to listen in. If this lady was a reporter... Yeojin looked Hyunjin over carefully. There was no way Hyunjin would betray them. No, she wouldn’t believe it. She’d ask Hyunjin about it later, in private, and give her a chance to explain herself.  I mean, the girl had just helped her bring Coco’s spirit to rest.

 

Hyunjin looked nervous and uncomfortable, so that was a point in her favor. Yeojin couldn’t hear much from this distance, but she didn’t dare get closer for fear of being spotted. She’d just have to deal with it later. She watched the two until the older woman left with a satisfied smile on her face. The smile reminded Yeojin of some sharks she had seen on television a few months ago. Yeojin shivered. Hyunjin looked down at her feet for a long while before she shuffled off, hands behind her back. 

 

Yeojin couldn’t go back to what she was doing before. She had to go and confront Hyunjin now, before something else happened. She dashed out from behind the column and tapped Hyunjin on the back. Hyunjin whipped around quickly, eyes cast upwards. She had clearly been expecting that woman to return and confront her. When she didn’t see her, she looked down and saw Yeojin. Her eyes widened and her mouth turned into a perfect ‘o’. 

 

“Yeojin? What are you doing here…” She looked around guiltily. “Did you see that?”

 

Yeojin nodded solemnly.

 

Hyunjin stammered, “I-I can explain…” 

 

Yeojin stuck a thumb in the direction of the hideout. “You can explain it to everyone.”

 

Hyunjin wrung her hands nervously. Sweat was visibly dripping down the sides of her face. Yeojin frowned and took one of her large hands in her own smaller one. Hyunjin seemed to get a little calmer after that.

 

Yeojin called a meeting the way they always did...by magic. Inside the lair was a stack of paper that, once tapped with the tip of your wand, sent letters out to all of the official members of this little club of theirs. The papers would apparate in the hands of all the girls outside the hideout. It was something Vivi had come up with when the lair was first discovered. Sooyoung had helped improve the enchantment’s efficiency with a couple of spells of her own. Yeojin found it incredibly convenient.

 

Hyunjin sat down on one of the soft mattresses in the corner, her hands crossed against her chest. Hyunjin’s dark hair hung over her face, hiding it from view. Yeojin sat next to her and rubbed a hand across her back.

 

“Hey, I’m sure everything’s going to be okay. If that lady was forcing you to….we’ll understand.” 

 

Hyunjin’s face became hard and unreadable underneath the curtain of hair. Yeojin decided to back off and put her hand back in her lap. 

 

The first girl to arrive was Jinsoul, unaccompanied by anyone. The girl looked fine. Better than fine, actually. She was glowing. For the first time since Yeojin had known her, the girl was actually, genuinely happy. The guilt that had weighed down her shoulders for the longest time was gone, at least for the moment. The thought made Yeojin smile.

  
A few seconds after her came Vivi. Vivi wasn’t smiling, but she did seem a little more sociable. Yeojin thought that they might have spent the missing time together, discussing their losses. Vivi draped her arm around Jinsoul, who smiled at her. The gap that had existed between them was gone now, and they were both the happier for it. Good.

 

Jiwoo, Sooyoung and Chaewon came in next. Jiwoo had her camera around her neck and a very uncharacteristic look of annoyance on her face. Sooyoung held Chaewon’s hand and guided the girl to a seat around the table. Jiwoo sat down next to Chaewon. 

 

Haseul, Heejin, Jungeun and Choerry all came in at once, all chattering to each other about their missing friends. They stopped when they realized everyone was in the room. Curiously, they didn’t choose to sit down next to their missing friends. Instead, they grouped together on the couch against the far wall.

 

There was something going on here, and Yeojin intended to get to the bottom of it, however long it might take.

 

Jinsoul practically hopped in front of her and Hyunjin, a wide smile stretching her face. 

 

“Thank you. Thank you both so much. I really needed that...really.”  Her eyes shined and sparkled with the glow of a changed woman. She pulled Hyunjin and Yeojin into a tight embrace. So tight, in fact, that Yeojin struggled to breathe. “H-hey! I need air to survive!” Jinsoul blushed and let go of the two girls. She frowned when she saw Hyunjin’s face. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

 

Hyunjin took a deep breath and then she started. “I did something bad. I told Jiwoo’s mom about...us.” Jinsoul took a step back, a hand over her mouth. “You did what?” Hyunjin looked at Jinsoul with pleading eyes. “I didn’t tell her your secret...it’s just...everyone’s been talking about us. I mean, who wouldn’t? We’re a group of eleven girls who don’t talk to anyone else. People are going to talk. So, I guess the newspapers got a whiff of controversy and they sent Jiwoo’s mom down here to investigate, see if there’s a story. I pretty much just confirmed there was one… I swear I didn’t tell her you were a werewolf. I would never...I don’t want...ugh!” She screamed in frustration, palms against her forehead.

 

Jiwoo put down her camera and stood up. Her normally smiling face had turned dour. “You should have come to me, Hyunjin.” Hyunjin looked at her helplessly. “I didn’t have time! I didn’t know what to do. And…” She tried to look at Heejin, but she could only get as far as her feet. She was too ashamed to even look the other girl in the eye. “Your mom invited us to stay at her place for the holidays. Um..” She took a few shaky breaths. “Invited is too nice a word for it. We have to go. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t stronger.” 

 

Everyone was glaring at Hyunjin now. The intensity of their anger was enough to make even Yeojin cringe. Yeojin pulled Hyunjin into a hug and patted her back. It was a rough situation. 

 

Heejin whispered, so low and strained that Yeojin only barely caught it, “She’s not my mom.”

 

Yeojin had a very bad feeling about this. 


	6. Sooyoung At A Crossroads

**_  
_ **

**_ANSWERS AND QUESTIONS_ **

  


Yeojin cornered Hyunjin while everyone had filed out of the room. With some urgency, she whispered, “What was all that about? And what did Heejin mean when she said that her mom wasn’t her mom?”

  


Hyunjin blinked furiously. She gulped and then she replied, “Don’t say that so loud!” She brushed her hands across the front of her uniform. “Heejin’s mom is a very powerful woman. She’s not very nice, either. I don’t think she would hesitate to do harm to any of us if it came down to it. So...we should really stay at her place for the holidays. And Heejin….you should ask Heejin about that. It’s not my place to tell you about that.” She turned her head so Yeojin couldn’t see her face. “I’m sorry, Yeojin.”

  


Yeojin opened and closed her mouth like a fish gasping for water. Hyunjin walked away, leaving Yeojin on her own to process what she had just told her.   _ What? How did this happen...are my parents really in danger? What did I even do?  _ Yeojin clapped a palm against the side of her head. She suddenly felt as if she was in way over her head.

  


Yeojin eventually pulled herself together long enough to ask Jungeun to borrow her owl. The girl let her use it without hesitation. She seemed like she was off in her own world. She almost seemed...angry. Yeojin hoped she wouldn’t take it out on Hyunjin, even though she wasn’t her favorite person in the world at the moment.

  


So, Yeojin found herself sitting on her bed, staring at the blank piece of parchment on her nightstand with quill in hand. She was at a loss as to what to write, exactly. Nothing came to mind, This was all she and her parents had talked about for weeks. She had really been looking forward to going home and seeing them again. It felt like forever since she had run away. It was a chance to apologize…

  


But if what Hyunjin had just told her was true, she couldn’t go home. Her parents were in danger because of...because of Heejin’s mom? And Jiwoo’s mom was looking into them for the Daily Prophet? The two had to be related somehow, but Yeojin had no idea how. She was too tired, and too upset to think this through right now. 

  


She clenched her hand into a fist and threw her quill into the wall. The delicate feather snapped in two and fell to the floor.

  


Yeojin yanked the covers over her head and slammed herself down onto the mattress, where she fell into a fitful, uneasy sleep.

  


**_CINDERS IN THE FIREPLACE_ **

  


Yeojin stood in front of Heejin’s house, trunk in hand. She blinked slowly as she gave the place a one over. The place was like something out of a watercolor painting. Yeojin had only ever seen houses this big on television. But the sight of such a massive residence was even more impressive in person.

  


The mansion was three stories tall and unbelievably wide. The entire thing was constructed out of a rich, dark wood. The roof tiles were painted the color of liver. Above the wide, double-doored entrance to the place there was a circular stained-glass window. It reminded Yeojin of the sole eye of a gigantic cyclops. The entire thing was coated in thick white snow. It was beautiful. And ominous.

  


Jungeun pushed past her, her arms full of suitcases. The older girl was clad in a thick winter coat, a beanie pulled down over her forehead. Yeojin wasn’t used to the new look. She wasn’t used to any of this, actually.

  


The only real exposure she’d had to the wizarding world had been Hogwarts, and before that, Diagon Alley. Both were small views of the larger world. But this was different. This was everyday life in a totally different world. This was the life she was living.

  


As soon as the girls got off the Hogwarts Express, they were greeted outside of King’s Cross station by a man in a very tidy suit. He was holding open the door to a  _ stretch  _ limo. Emphasis on stretch. It started out as a normally sized car, but as soon as more than two of them climbed in, the car stretched to accommodate them. Pretty soon, the thing was the size of four cars stacked up against each other. Yeojin wasn’t sure how that worked and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  


The ride over was surprisingly quiet for the number of girls packed into the back. Yeojin sat next to Haseul, who showed her a neat trick for enhancing the amount of space in her trunk. Jinsoul sat in the far corner while Jungeun ran her fingers through her hair. Heejin had retreated totally into herself, where no one could reach her, not even Hyunjin. Jiwoo, Sooyoung, Chaewon and Vivi sat together, trying their best to enjoy the drinks and snacks that came in the mini-fridge underneath the seats. 

  


In less than an hour, they were at Heejin’s house, which to Yeojin’s understanding seemed to exist in a totally different plane of reality than the surrounding countryside. It was almost mountainous, but of course there were no mountains to be seen.

  


Vivi patted her on the back as she walked by. She rubbed her mitten covered hands together. The sight only made Yeojin wish even more that she had prepared her own set of winter clothes before heading off to Hogwarts. As it was, she only had the thin sweater and jeans she had run away with on that night that seemed years ago instead of months.

  


Yeojin rubbed her shoulders and shivered in the frozen winter air. Sooyoung tapped her on the shoulder and smiled at her kindly. “You coming? I think they’re waiting for us inside.” Yeojin nodded. It was too cold to speak.

  


Sooyoung walked Yeojin up to the door, pulling her heavy coat up and over  the smaller girl’s shoulders. Haseul walked close behind the two of them, pulling up the rear of their little fellowship.

  
  


Heejin’s servants held the doors open for the girls. Yeojin glanced at their faces as she passed. They seemed grim. Clearly, working for a rich family wasn’t all it was cut out to be.

  


The inside of the house wasn’t much warmer than the outside. Clearly, wizards hadn’t yet thought up the whole concept of climate control. The main hall was about as enormous as Yeojin had been expecting from the outside. The roof was dozens of feet above her head, and a set of stairs led up to a second floor. There was a massive red carpet thrown down in front of a spacious fireplace. The other girls were similarly in awe, looking up and around in amazement at the grand place they had found themselves in. All of them, that was, except for Heejin and Hyunjin.

  


Heejin was looking at the floor, shivering. Yeojin thought that it was only partially because of the cold. Hyunjin had her arm around her shoulder. What kind of person was Heejin’s mom, exactly? 

  


She didn’t have to wait long for an answer.

  


The woman climbed down the stairs, hand on the railing, her bright red dress trailing behind her dramatically. Instantly, the reason for Heejin’s hesitation became clear. The woman coming down the stairs looked nothing like Heejin. Neither did the two girls behind her. This lady wasn’t Heejin’s mother. At least not her biological mother. 

  


She reached the bottom of the stairs and threw her arms out theatrically. 

  


“Heejin! My lovely daughter. So nice to see you again. It’s been too long...you never write. I just don’t understand why.” The two girls behind the woman snickered, their pretty blonde hair bobbing up and down as they did.  The woman turned to address the rest of the girls. “And you must be Heejin’s little friends! I’ve heard quite a bit about you. It’s a pleasure. Come, have a seat around the fireplace, make yourselves comfortable.” 

  


Yeojin gladly took a seat on the enormous sofa placed in front of the fireplace. Haseul and Sooyoung sat on either side of her. Haseul watched Heejin carefully. 

  


The woman crooked her index finger in Heejin’s direction. Her face had dropped its false warmth, revealing the cold haughtiness underneath. In a voice that brooked no argument, she spoke.“Heejin. Come here. We need to talk.” Heejin stared blankly ahead and walked over to her ‘mother’ in short, shuffling steps. The two blonde girls, presumably her ‘sisters’, were laughing themselves silly at the sight of Heejin. As soon as Heejin was within arm’s length of the woman, she grabbed Heejin’s upper arm roughly and pulled her in close. Heejin let out a short whimper of pain, but the two of them were already marching into a side hallway, away from the rest of her friends.

  


Haseul put a hand over her mouth and winced. “Poor Heekki….” 

  


Yeojin gaped at her. “What is she going to do to her? Do you know?” 

  


Haseul shook her head. “I don’t...but it’s probably nothing good.”

  


Yeojin glanced over at Sooyoung, who was similarly amazed at the older woman’s audacity. Yeojin poked her in the shoulder. “Hey, aren’t we going to do anything?”

  


Sooyoung shrugged. “What can we do? This is her house… I’m still just trying to figure out how I got here.” Yeojin could relate. She was still worried about Heejin, though. She had an awful feeling, deep in the pit of her stomach.

  


Those two girls’ giggling didn’t help settle her down any.

  


**_DINNER AT HEEJIN’S_ **

  


Yeojin didn’t see Heejin again until it was almost time for dinner. The two girls, who introduced themselves as Jessica and Heather, were incredibly accommodating to Yeojin and her friends. They showed them around the mansion and introduced them to the rooms they would be staying in. Haseul, Hyunjin and Yeojin would room together. Jiwoo, Vivi and Chaewon were all going to be in another room. Jungeun and Jinsoul had their own room, and Sooyoung and Choerry were in the last room at the end of the hall. It was an odd arrangement, to be sure.

  


When Yeojin asked where Heejin would be staying, Jessica and Heather burst out laughing. Yeojin frowned, but did not press any further. 

  


Haseul and Hyunjin passed the time away by coming up with acrostic poems. Haseul was particularly bad at it,and Yeojin had to suppress laughter several times. Hanging around those two always made her feel safe, but there was something about this place that was making her uneasy.

  


They were called down to dinner at around seven in the evening. The world outside the windows was pitch black and foreboding. The rooms inside weren’t much better. 

  


Heejin’s mom had apparently turned the lights on in their absence. The vast chandeliers hanging above the ground floor were glowing with light. Heather and Jessica guided the ten girls down the staircase and into the dining room, where they were seated on either side of a very long table. Yeojin sat down next to Haseul. There was no food on the table, only empty silver plates. Very shiny silver plates. And cutlery. Jinsoul scratched at her neck nervously. Jungeun grabbed her wrist and gave her a warning look. The girl stopped squirming and settled down.

  


Heejin’s mother emerged from a door in the back wall. Yeojin caught a glimpse of the kitchen behind her. There was food stacked on a long metal shelf. But there was still no sign of Heejin. Yeojin looked around and counted three empty chairs. Heather and Jessica sat themselves down in two of them, and Heejin’s mom sat in the chair at the head of the table. She crossed her legs elegantly and smirked. Her eyes ran over every single girl in the room, her gaze piercing. Each of them squirmed under the scrutiny. 

  


Finally, she spoke. “Well, I’m glad you girls are here. When Jiwoo’s mother told me the eleven of you were hanging out, I found it terribly suspicious. I just had to see it for myself. And you didn’t disappoint! Which is very good for you. Very good.” She crossed her fingers underneath her chin. Jiwoo visibly flinched. 

  


“Let’s all introduce ourselves. I’ll start. My name is Veronica, but you’ll know me better as Mrs. Jeon. These are my daughters, who you’ve already been acquainted with. Heather, Jessica, say hello!”

  


The two girls smiled brightly and wiggled their fingers in their direction. “Hello! Very nice to meet Jinnie’s friends.” Heather nodded along with her sister, her blue eyes filled with mirth.

  


Veronica placed both of her hands on the table. “Now it’s your turn. Hyunjin is excused, as the two of us already know each other.” She tossed Hyunjin a wink. 

  
  


From across the table, Yeojin could see Hyunjin cringe. Clearly, she wasn’t a fan. Yeojin certainly wasn’t.

Mrs.Jeon ignored her and moved on to the next girl on her list. “Jiwoo! Your mom works for me, did you know that?”

  


Jiwoo stared intently at her plate. “No, ma’am, I did not.” Her mouth was set into a straight line. She looked uncharacteristically upset.

  


“Well, she doesn’t work directly for me. I just own most of the Daily Prophet. Anything they hear, I hear. And I heard about this,”she twirled a finger in the general direction of the girls, “from her. She heard it from the rumor mill, and Heejin’s little friend only confirmed it. So…” She gestured at Vivi. The girl was the closest to her daughters.

  


Vivi blinked and looked balefully at the older woman. The woman held up her hands, as if to say “what are you doing?” Vivi coughed and began to speak. “M-my name is Vivi.” Mrs. Jeon’s daughters started laughing again. Vivi furrowed her eyebrows. Mrs. Jeon waved them off. “Don’t mind them. My daughters are idiots, unfortunately. Where do you come from, originally?”

  


Vivi wrung her hands. “Hong Kong.” 

  


Mrs. Jeon nodded idly and moved on, clearly not paying much attention to Vivi’s words. 

  


She turned to face Jungeun, who had switched seats with Jinsoul in an attempt to distance her from the woman’s family. Jungeun waved, a sullen expression on her face.

  


Mrs. Jeon stroked her chin thoughtfully. “You two. You’re the troublemakers.” Jungeun raised her eyebrows incredulously. Mrs. Jeon stuck a finger in Choerry’s direction. “And this is the blood traitor.” Choerry looked extremely hurt by the words. Jinsoul was squeezing the table with one hand as she ground her teeth against each other. She was barely restraining herself from an outburst that would likely get her in deep trouble. Jungeun rubbed Jinsoul’s forearm with gentle fingers. 

  


“Oh. You’re in love. How disgusting.” 

  


Jinsoul looked like she was about to shout something at the woman, but Haseul quickly interjected herself into the conversation.

  


“Hello, Mrs. Jeon! It’s very nice to finally meet you! I’m Haseul. Heejin’s friend. I’m sure she’s mentioned me before.”

  


Mrs. Jeon chuckled and moved her attention away from the two blondes to face Haseul. She was clearly amused by how upset she was making the girls. Yeojin wanted to punch her.

  


“Oh, she certainly has. It’s nice to finally put a face to the name. It’s curious that you’ve only been around for the last two years, according to Ministry records. Perhaps you could sate my curiosity and explain why that is?” Haseul looked distressed. “Well, I did change my name,” she mumbled. Mrs. Jeon’s eyes alighted like a lion about to pounce on her prey. “What was that, dear? Speak up!”

  


Haseul licked her lips and said, louder this time, “I changed my name, ma’am.” 

  


Mrs. Jeon leaned back in her chair and drummed her fingertips along the tablecloth. She looked positively delighted. “Hmm. Curiouser and curiouser…” Her eyes ran over Chaewon. Yeojin’s skin crawled. 

  


“You there. You look familiar. Who are your parents?” 

  


Chaewon looked up, bewildered. “Um...I’m Park Chaewon...of the Forville Parks?” 

  


Mrs. Jeon’s lips split over bright, white teeth. “Finally, a proper lady. It’s been so long since we’ve had one of those in here. How has your mother been?”

  


Chaewon gasped. The small girl was shaking. “Um...she’s gone. She died almost two years ago, now.” 

  


Mrs. Jeon frowned in mock sympathy. “Oh dear. I’m very sorry to hear that.” 

  


Chaewon leaned on the table, leaning her head down between her shoulders. “T-thank you…”

  


Mrs. Jeon clapped her hands together. “Alright then. Now that introductions are over with, I think we can begin eating!” 

  


Sooyoung raised a hand. “I think you forgot to ask me and Yeojin to introduce ourselves.”

  


Mrs. Jeon blinked and looked around in amazement, as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard. She put a hand over her heart. “I didn’t forget. I just didn’t want you two to embarass yourselves. I mean, being a mudblood is one thing, but none of your parents are even wizards. How do you even cope?”

  
Sooyoung kept her voice a flat monotone. “Very well.” The girl next to her, Heather, let out a soft giggle before her mom glared at her and she stopped.

  


Yeojin was pissed off. How could this woman say all those things to and about her friends? How could she just trample all over them like that? And the worst part was the fact that none of them were even lifting a finger to do anything to stop her behavior. 

  


Before Yeojin could stop herself, she blurted out, “Where is Heejin, ma’am? We haven’t seen her since we got here.” Her voice was a little angrier than she had intended. She hoped the woman wouldn’t catch on.

  


Of course, she did.

  


“Oh my, why so upset? We’re all friends here, right? I thought we would just have a little pre-dinner chat. Make ourselves more familiar with each other. Heejin’s fine, honey. Patience is a virtue. Speaking of which…”

  


She snapped her fingers, and the doors leading to the kitchen opened with a bang. Yeojin half-expected to see a long line of floating meals making their way to the table. At this rate, she was starting to believe that anything was possible, as long as you had magic.

  


What Yeojin saw instead made her heart drop into her stomach. 

  


Heejin emerged from the kitchen, dressed in an ugly, worn smock dress the color of overdone pea soup. Her hair was tied back into a tight, practical bun. She was pushing a cart overburdened with food. Her eyes were red. She had clearly been crying. Her cheeks were flushed red with humiliation. Mrs. Jeon smiled wickedly.

  


Haseul’s jaw dropped. She looked horrified. She probably hadn’t heard much about Heejin’s homelife. She didn’t think any of them had. Heejin very rarely talked about herself outside of what she liked to do. She never talked about her parents or her siblings. Yeojin could see why, now.

  


“I know, isn’t it great? There’s no need to spend money on purchasing house-elves to do work around the house when I have such a lovely, hard working daughter!” She reached over and pinched Heejin’s cheek. Heejin let out a shocked noise, but otherwise didn’t protest.

  


Mrs. Jeon patted Heejin’s shoulder. “Now, now dear, hurry up, I’m sure our guests are starving.” 

  


Heejin nodded silently and began to serve. She put a plate full of food down in front of her ‘mom’ and then she served her sisters. They laughed in her face. Heather laughed so hard that some of her spittle flew onto Heejin’s face. Heejin winced and pulled herself up. She wiped the spittle off with a piece of cloth hanging off of the cart. 

  


She served Sooyoung next, and on and on she went in a clockwise direction around the table, until it was Vivi’s turn. The girls watched Heejin go about her work uneasily. Heejin was silent but her mortification was clear. Yeojin thought this was incredibly cruel.

  


Heejin grabbed Vivi’s plate off the cart. A foot shot out from underneath the table and sent Heejin sprawling onto the floor, along with the plate of food. The delicate china shattered on the hardwood floor. Heejin whimpered and looked up at Jessica, who blew a raspberry at her.

  


The food splattered across the floor. It was all a giant mess. Mrs. Jeon jumped to her feet and jabbed an accusing finger at Heejin. “Look at what you’ve done. You’ve messed up this beautiful floor and left your friend without any food to eat. Clean it up and then make another. Actually…” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Eat it. We’re not wasteful people, Heejin.”

  


Heejin looked like she was on the edge of tears. “But I--” Mrs. Jeon whipped her wand out and cast a spell on the girl. Heejin coughed and tried to speak, but no sound escaped her throat. Yeojin frowned and held Haseul’s hand. Haseul put her other hand over Yeojin’s smaller one.

  


Heejin cried in silence as she was forced to eat the dirty, contaminated food off the floor. A fair portion of the dish she had made for them was broth, so she was forced to lick the liquid off with her tongue. Soon enough, she was finished. She picked up the tiny pieces of china and dashed back to the kitchen.

  


As soon as she was gone, her sisters began laughing uproariously. Yeojin’s lip trembled. How could they be so cruel? Heejin was supposed to be a part of their family!

  


They could all hear the sounds of Heejin working frantically in the kitchen. Mrs. Jeon was carefully keeping track of the clock mounted on the wall. She turned to face the girls after a few moments.

  


“How are you enjoying your meals, girls?”

  


Choerry nodded gratefully, her mouth filled with chunks of beef. “Tho good!” The other girls seemed to be enjoying the food, but they were wary enough of Mrs. Jeon not to show it so overtly.

  


“You like your steak rare, right Jinsoul?” 

  


Jinsoul looked confused, unsure of how to answer that question. Did Mrs. Jeon know? She at least suspected.

  


“....sure.” 

  


Mrs. Jeon nodded her satisfaction. “Well, I’m glad we’re all happy. Vivi, I’m sorry about the wait, dear. Heejin can be such a mess sometimes.”

  


Vivi pulled her hand off the table and into her lap. She looked at Haseul accusingly. Haseul just buried her fork into her mouth.

  


Heejin came out of the kitchen a few minutes later, holding a scalding hot plate with her bare hands. She carefully placed the plate in front of Vivi, who ran a comforting hand over her forearm. Heejin gave her a small, pained smile, and then she retreated to the corner of the room. 

  


Yeojin shook her head. “Hey, what about Heejin? Doesn’t she get to eat at the table?’

  


Mrs. Jeon raised an eyebrow. “She’s already eaten, my dear.”

  


Yeojin realized that she was right, and the thought made her sick. 

  


“Yes, poor Heejin. She’s worked so hard to make up for her father’s absence. Poor man went insane. He can hardly remember his own name nowadays. St. Mungo’s takes good care of him, though. All those too sick to function in society should really be in a place like that. Don’t you agree, Jungeun?” 

  


Now Jungeun was the one ready to fight. Before she could even draw breath to shout, however, Jinsoul slammed her fists onto the table. “If you know something, spit it out already. Confront us! I’m tired of this passive-aggressive shit. And stop punishing Heejin for hanging out with us.”

  


The entire room froze. Nobody was quite sure what would happen next. Mrs. Jeon frowned, ever so slightly. “What would I know? How would I confront you about it? I just wanted to meet Heejin’s friends for myself. Unless you’re hiding something that I should know about….” Jinsoul shook her head and sat back down.

  


Mrs. Jeon scoffed. “If you think you’re going to finish eating in here after your little outburst, you are sadly mistaken.” She pointed at a window with a good view of Heejin’s snow-covered backyard. “Mongrels stay outside.” Jinsoul scoffed and stormed outside, plate in hand. Mrs. Jeon pointed at Jungeun. “You too, honey.” Jungeun rolled her eyes and followed Jinsoul out the door. The door locked behind them with a click. Choerry protested. “B-but you can’t just….they’ll freeze out there!” Mrs. Jeon shrugged carelessly. 

  


They finished the rest of their dinner in silence, terrified of being locked outside in the cold like their friends. Haseul’s fist was clenched so tight that her nails had begun to cut into her palm. As soon as she was finished, Yeojin put her plate down and asked to be excused. Those were the manners her parents had taught her, after all.

  


Yeojin got out of that room as fast as she could manage without looking rude, and then she ran straight up the stairs and into the room she was sharing with Haseul and Hyunjin. She parted the curtain and looked over the pure white landscape below. She could see a bright fire roaring at the center of a little camp. Two blondes sat on either side of the fire. Satisfied that the two of them would be okay for the moment, she went to sleep.

  


**_STONE HOUSE, WOOD HOUSE, GLASS HOUSE_ **

  


The next week and a half were just as exhausting as the first day. Mrs. Jeon was a very, very bad person in Yeojin’s estimation, and she really wished she hadn’t come out to spend the holidays with her. Her friends expressed similar thoughts. Jinsoul and Jungeun were let in the next day, shivering and half-frozen, but mostly okay. Heejin set the fireplace alight, and then she was off to do some other business for her step-mother-- for Yeojin had realized that this was the only thing she could be to her. Choerry and Yeojin were right there to help the girls change out of their damp, frozen clothing and into something more comfortable. 

  


Luckily, they weren’t confined to the house for the duration of their stay. They actually had time to go shopping in the nearby town. Haseul and Yeojin spent nearly all of their time in Mrs. Jeon’s house out of it. 

  


Yeojin had noticed that Haseul had constantly stuck to her side ever since leaving the castle. She asked Haseul about it, and the older girl had chuckled and told her that she had designated herself as Yeojin’s official bodyguard during their stay. Nothing would happen to Yeojin while she was by her side, this she promised.

  


That made Yeojin feel a little bit better about the whole thing.

  


Still, the sight of Heejin scrubbing up after them like a maid turned her stomach. She wanted to talk to her friend, to tell her to stop, but the girl was constantly running around. Yeojin was horrified by the realization that this is what Heejin had had to go through for years, all on her own, with no one to defend her except for maybe Hyunjin. The thought of being so alone broke her heart.

  


And Heejin was scrubbing by hand too, using soap and water and other things Yeojin thought she could probably just use magic for. This was a mandate by Mrs. Jeon, no doubt. She wondered if she could lure the woman into a snowball fight where she used snowballs packed with sharp stones.

  


She would occasionally hear sharp screams of pain from behind closed doors, deep in the middle of the night. Yeojin couldn’t stop the tears, then. 

  


One day, when Haseul and Yeojin were returning from a successful shopping run (Yeojin had gotten a ton of new clothes and a couple of new cases to hold them in--Haseul had bought them for her) they saw Jinsoul, Sooyoung and Hyunjin arguing outside. They ran inside to drop off their purchases, and then they joined the fray.

  


“You need to calm down, Jinsoul! Hyunjin made a mistake, yes, but she’s already apologized and she’s doing everything she can to make up for it.”

Jinsoul shook her head furiously and glared at Hyunjin. “I don’t need to calm down. What I need to do is get out of here. I can’t spend another second inside that house with that bitch! I was just starting to feel like I wasn’t alone in all of this, that maybe there was a way to live with this thing. I finally felt good for the first time in months, and now...how can I? This is all your fault!” Jinsoul ran at Hyunjin, but she was repelled by an invisible barrier Sooyoung had erected between the two of them. Hyunjin looked down at the ground. “I-I’m really sorry, Jinsoul. I don’t know what else to say. I don’t know what else to do!”

  


Jinsoul snarled. “You could try helping your friend. That’s what Heejin is to you, right? How can you just sit by and her do that stuff to her?!” Hyunjin looked away guiltily. “She asked me not to. And what could I do anyway? I’m just one witch. She’d have no trouble at all getting rid of me. No trouble.” 

  


Sooyoung waved her hand in front of Jinsoul’s face. “Hey, hey, settle down. We’re all friends here. This is what she wants. She wants to divide us.”

  


Jinsoul climbed to her feet. “What she wants is to hurt me. She’s cornered me every single day and asked me weird questions about me and my home life. She knows. She just wants me to admit that I’m a werewolf so that she can destroy me! I’m pretty sure the lady’s an ex-Death Eater--”Sooyoung clapped her hand over Jinsoul’s mouth and shushed her loudly, pointing up the hill at a lone rock. As soon as she did, a lithe figure raced out from behind it, heading towards the house. 

  


Jinsoul shoved Sooyoung’s hand off and gaped at the rock. “Shit! I think she heard us!” 

  


Jinsoul dashed inside, followed shortly by Hyunjin and Haseul. They all looked extremely worried. Sooyoung remained outside, her fingers running across the outside of her satchel. She startled when she realized Yeojin was still outside with her. 

  


Yeojin tilted her head curiously, and then she pointed to Sooyoung’s bag. “Deep thoughts within?” Sooyoung smiled and sat down on a nearby log. “The deepest. Always.” She patted the patch of log next to her. “Come. Sit down. I want to ask you a question.”

  


Yeojin obediently hoisted herself onto the log. 

  


“Yeojin. You know all of us well enough. You’ve only been here for a few months, but you’ve already changed things. You’ve made them better. Just by being around. That’s a rare gift.”

  


Yeojin smiled, her cheeks heating up. “It’s nothing, really.”

  


Sooyoung shook her head. “It’s everything. I really treasure your friendship. And the friendships you brought with you. It’s lonely sometimes, being a muggleborn.” She drummed her fingers against the log. “So, I trust you to answer this question honestly. Would you be willing to change everything...everything about yourself--to keep Jinsoul company?”

  


Yeojin hummed softly. It was a weird question to ask. It came out of nowhere, too. But Yeojin thought that if she could do anything to make the sad, broken angry girl happier, she’d take that chance.

  


“Yes. Whatever it took.” 

  


Sooyoung nodded, deep in thought. After a few seconds, she turned to Yeojin and smiled. “Thank you.”

  


Yeojin nodded, a smile forcing its way out of her despite herself. “No, thank you. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.” Yeojin leaped forward and hugged Sooyoung around the middle. The girl jumped slightly, startled by the sudden contact, but then she put a hand on Yeojin’s back and pulled her in closer. The two girls basked in each others warmth for a few minutes before they went inside.

  


It was surprisingly calm within the house. Haseul had moved their bags up to their rooms, and Hyunjin and Jinsoul were sitting next to each other on the couch in front of the fireplace. Sooyoung leaned on the couch. “How did it go?”

  


Jinsoul shook her head, dejected. Hyunjin spoke for her. “We couldn’t find her anywhere. She’s going to tell her mom. And that’ll be all she needs to screw me over.” Jinsoul buried her face in her hands.

  
  


**_BACK TO HOGWARTS_ **

  


The last three days of their holiday break passed without incident. The girls managed to hold a minor New Year’s celebration in the kitchen. It was brief, because they were rudely interrupted by one of Heejin’s ‘sisters’ before they could really get started. Jungeun did manage to sneak a bottle of wine out of the kitchen, but she was quickly reprimanded by Haseul, who demanded she turn it over to her.

  


Mrs. Jeon didn’t make any overt appearances in those last couple of days. Yeojin thought the woman would be all over them at that point, gloating about how much she knew of their secret, but she was surprisingly quiet.

  


Finally, it was time to head out and go home. The girls gathered once more in the lobby. They talked amongst themselves, more talkative than they had been in days. It was a relief to finally get out of there, and away from the madness that was Heejin’s house. Heejin’s shoulders sagged with relief. Haseul and Hyunjin pulled her into a warm embrace. 

  


Mrs. Jeon didn’t come out to see them off. Instead, Heather and Jessica showed them out, which Yeojin thought was incredibly suspicious. Still, if she said she wasn’t ecstatic to be inside of the stretch limo once more, she would have been lying. 

  


The ride back was the first moment of real enjoyment Yeojin had had all break. Jiwoo talked excitedly about the new camera her mom had gotten for her, and its 2,379 different filters. Yes, that was an exact number, and yes, Jiwoo repeated it just that many times on their way back. Chaewon discussed the present Yeojin had gotten for her with some excitement. It was nothing, really. Just a leatherbound notebook she had seen on her way back from the shops. Chaewon seemed like someone with a lot of thoughts to write down, so she had gotten it for her. The girl had squealed--literally squealed-- when Yeojin handed her the present. She blushed when Chaewon gave her a hug and kissed her on the cheek. It was nice.

  


Yeojin knew there was something very wrong as they disembarked the car and made for King’s Cross. There was a bunch of men and women standing outside of the station, quills in hand. Oh god, she’d really gone and done it...she’d told the newspapers about Jinsoul’s secret. 

  


Haseul cursed under her breath. Yeojin heard it anyway.

  


Jinsoul took a step out of the car and winced. Jungeun was right behind her, hands on her shoulders. “We’ve got to be strong now, baby. They want to see you weak. Don’t let them.”

  


The eleven girls pushed past the crowd of reporters, past the intermittent flashes of cameras going off, and towards Platform 9 and ¾. There was an incessant stream of pointless and often offensive questions being thrown at them, but they refused to answer. They just stared ahead and pretended as if the others weren’t there.

  


They boarded the Hogwarts Express and sat in a private cabin near the back. None of them were eager to answer questions from people their own age. Yeojin wondered what exactly would happen when they got back.

  


Almost as soon as they stepped foot into the castle, they were directed into an empty side room and told to await the arrival of the headmistress. The eleven of them piled into the room and took the spare chairs that had been arranged in a circle around the center of the it. 

  


Haseul sighed. “So I guess this is it.”

  


Jinsoul nodded solemnly. “I’ll probably be expelled. I mean, the headmistress knew from the start, but she told us to keep it a secret. I failed. Now she doesn’t have any other choice, really. I’m sorry. This is going to hurt your reputations and it’s...it’s all my fault.” Jungeun gave her a back hug. “No, no...this is not your fault. This is no one’s fault except for maybe that bitch.” Jungeun looked at Heejin. “Speaking of which...are you okay?”

  


Heejin buried her face in her hands and let out a choked sob. “I was so helpless...I’m always so helpless when I’m there. And you saw….you all saw. I’m so weak. I wish I could get out of there. But...my dad…” Hyunjin sat in the chair next to Heejin and draped her arm around her. “Shhh….shhh….” She patted the girl on the head.

  


Sooyoung contemplated her satchel, and then she shook her head and walked over to the frosted windows that looked out on the winter wonderland that was the Hogwarts school grounds. She glanced at the bag again and then she shrugged.  

  


She pulled a large book with a blue cover out. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at her. Sooyoung bit her lip, and then she began. “This is the book of Animagi. It, uh, It contains everything there is to know about Animagi. What they are, how to become one, how to live as one. Original copies are very rare. I borrowed it from Heejin’s library. I hope you don’t mind.” Heejin shook her head. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Maybe, after all this is done, we can try it. As a sort of companionship thing for Jinsoul. I know it’s a big thing to ask, but...we can consider it, right?”

  


Yeojin raised her hand. “What exactly is an Animagus?” 

  


Sooyoung chuckled softly. “It means you can turn into an animal whenever you want. The headmistress is one. I guess, if the secret’s out already, we can ask her for help.”

  


Yeojin nodded. It was a big thing to ask. But she didn’t hate the idea.

  


The other girls didn’t seem as sure. Haseul frowned. Jungeun was nodding vigorously. Hyunjin had a blank expression on her face. She was too absorbed in taking care of Heejin. 

  


Sooyoung nodded. “That’s what I thought. We don’t have to decide anything right now. Just...give it some thought, okay? We’ll talk later.”

  


A series of knocks rang throughout the room. Heejin quickly pulled herself together and wiped the tears off of her face. Jinsoul stared balefully at the door. The bright brass handle began to turn.

  


To herself, Yeojin whispered, “It’s showtime.”


	7. Full Moon Rising

**_PEP TALK_ **

 

The door creaked open to reveal the sullen face of one Headmistress McGonagall. The woman was understandably upset at the turn of events, just as the girls were. Yeojin wondered if she was embarassed. She should be.

The Headmistress walked stiffly to the podium at the far end of the room, past the silent, judging eyes of the girls. None of them were comfortable with the situation they had been forced into, and it showed. The Headmistress threw the edge of her emerald-green cloak over her shoulder and put both hands on the edges of the podium. She gave each of the girls a meaningful look, and then she began to speak.

 

“This is quite a conundrum you girls have put me in.”Her voice was uncharacteristically light and jovial, an effect of her own discomfort. “Jinsoul.” She peered directly at the girl, over the rim of her spectacles. “You were allowed to continue attending Hogwarts on the condition that you and your friends kept your illness a secret. That clearly hasn’t happened.” Jinsoul fidgeted with a lock of  her hair.

 

McGonagall gazed warmly at the Ravenclaw. “I just want to let you know that that’s okay. Mistakes were made. But it’s something that happens.” She whipped her glasses of and pinched the bridge of her nose between two fingers. “Unfortunately, other people are not as forgiving as I. There are several newspapers that want to hold interviews with you girls. I’ve arranged for a small press conference in Hogsmeade so that we can get this over with. Regardless, I will do my best to fight for you to stay at Hogwarts, Jinsoul. You can trust me on that.”

 

Jinsoul didn’t seem very comforted by the sentiment.

 

McGonagall sighed deeply and placed her glasses back on her face. “The conference is in two days. Study hard and do your best in the meantime.”

 

That was easier said than done.

 

Now that everyone knew Jinsoul’s secret, they were out for blood. Nobody was talking to her, and a few were doing much worse. While walking Jinsoul back to Ravenclaw Tower, they saw a wall smeared with red paint in the shape of letters-- “WEREWOLF SLUTS SHOULD STAY AT HOME”

 

Jinsoul shook her head and climbed up the staircase. She refused Yeojin’s hug and Sooyoung’s offer to hold hands. In her mind, she was alone in this.

 

Yeojin wanted to do her best to show her that wasn’t the case. So did the other girls. They brought her breakfast the next morning, but she wasn’t seeing anyone. She did attend classes, but she refused to speak to anyone.

 

Yeojin didn’t see her again until it was almost time for the conference.

 

_**THE TRIAL OF JUNG JINSOUL** _

 

“So, what do you think about all of this?”

 

It was Hyunjin’s question, directed towards Yeojin. The two of them were in a lavish waiting room just outside the cleared out dining room that would hold the conference. It was a little awkward, with the eleven of them forced into a room. The reporters probably would have preferred to do it in a more convenient location, but this was an incredible move on the part of the school already.

 

“I think this is bullshit!”

 

Haseul’s head snapped up at that. Yeojin held her hands up. “Sorry, but it’s true. Jinsoul deserves to go to school like anybody else.”

 

Jinsoul stared at the ground and wrung her hands. “I wish you wouldn’t talk about me like I’m not here.”

 

Yeojin pressed her lips together. “Sorry. I do mean it. We’re all here for you.”

 

Jinsoul shook her head. “I know you are. You’re all really good friends. But that Animagus thing….I don’t think it’s a good idea. I don’t think you guys want what I have.”

 

Sooyoung rubbed her shoulder. “It’s a chance for companionship. A chance to make yourself a little less alone in the world. Isn’t that worth it?”

 

Jinsoul gave the black haired girl a small frown. “I’m just saying. Don’t set yourselves on fire to keep me warm. I’m not worth it.”

 

Jungeun gave Jinsoul a light punch on the shoulder. “Hey, don’t say that! You are worth it. You are. Hey, don’t give me that look…” Jinsoul glared at Jungeun before warming up to her and burying her head in her shoulder.

 

Yeojin glanced over at Heejin, who was sitting between Hyunjin and Jiwoo. She had recovered rather quickly from her little sojourn to her stepmom’s house. She’d have to, to cope with the rest of her life at school. Still, it was clear that everyone was concerned about her mental state in the wake of such blatant abuse by someone who was supposed to care for her.

 

“You okay?”

 

Heejin nodded and smiled. “I’ve had worse. Let’s just focus on Jinsoul.” She pushed her eyebrows together and looked at the blonde girl sympathetically.

 

Choerry was standing on the tips of her toes, peering out the window at the main room. She looked over her shoulder urgently. “They’re coming, guys. Get ready!”

 

Everyone scrambled into a neat line in the center of the room. Haseul stood at the head of the line, her face confident and unyielding. She inhaled deeply, and then she began to speak. “This is it. This is the only chance we’re going to get to make things right. The headmistress didn’t say it explicitly, but if we don’t have a strong presence here, Jinsoul’s probably going to get expelled. So, put on your best faces.”

 

Haseul turned around. Yeojin sighed. This was heavy, heavy stuff. Not for the first time, she wondered how she had managed to get herself mixed up in all of this. The weird thing was, she wouldn’t trade the friends she had made here for the entire world. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for one of us. Us. There had never been an us before.

 

She was an only child, in every sense of the word. Her mother’s work had taken the three of them all over the country. She’d never had a chance to settle down and make any real, lasting friends. Her brash and loud attitude hadn’t helped much, either. But these girls...they were different. They were more like family than anyone outside of her parents. She knew they felt the same way about her, and that was a great comfort. Especially now.

 

The door swung open and Yeojin faced the greatest challenge of her very short life. She only hoped she’d be able to rise to the occasion.  She kept her head held up high as she made her way past the man holding the door. The girls were greeted by the incessant flash of cameras as they entered the dining hall. Yeojin took a look around. There were several dozen people crowded into the overly small space that had been cleared out for them. The room was stuffy and hot from the massive number of people stuffed into the room. Yeojin tugged at the collar of her dress.

 

There was a table that had been dragged up to the front of the room. There were 12 chairs arranged for them on the far side of the table. Yeojin raised a quizzical eyebrow. But there’s only eleven of us? Someone must have miscounted. Besides the odd number of chairs, the table seemed pretty plain. The only thing on the table were eleven microphones, ready and waiting for them.

 

Haseul shuffled her way along the space between the chairs and the table and sat down at the furthest chair from the door. Heejin and Hyunjin sat in the two chairs after that. Chaewon, Jiwoo and Sooyoung sat next to each other. Yeojin sat between Choerry and Jinsoul, with Jungeun and Vivi at the end to her right. The eleven of them sat in front of the assemblage of people with an electric anxiety. Yeojin blinked the blinding camera flashes out of her eyes.

 

Once she could see again, she saw Mrs. Jeon sitting near the front of the crowd, arms folded around her handbag. She was smiling. Yeojin leaned over to get a better look at Heejin. The girl had frozen up again, just like she had on the way to her step-mother’s house. That was bad.

 

The same brown-haired woman that had been interrogating Hyunjin in the hallway was also there, although she was sitting off to the side of the table. She would be moderating this little interview, Yeojin guessed. Jiwoo made a small noise when she realized who it was.

 

The crowd was talking over each other-- the level of noise was actually starting to become painful. The brown haired woman (Jiwoo’s mom?) tapped her wand to her throat twice. When she spoke, her voice was heavily amplified. “Quiet down, everyone. You’ll all get a chance to ask your questions, but one at a time please!” Her voice was soft and melodious. She reminded Yeojin of a less-hyper, more put-together version of Jiwoo. The din of the crowd settled down into murmurs, and then silence.

 

On the other side of the table stood the nervous professor who had read out the names on Yeojin’s first night at Hogwarts. He looked a little less nervous now, but he was still fidgety. Yeojin could hardly believe that this was the guy the Headmistress had sent to keep watch over their interrogation. It seemed like a bit of a weak effort on her part.

 

“Alright, Ladies and gentlemen! Let’s get this started. Remember, be polite and courteous. These girls are doing us a favor by answering our questions. I’ll choose one question at a time. Now show of hands--who wants to go first?”

 

Every hand in the room went up at once. Jiwoo’s mom smiled and picked a swollen looking man near the front of the crowd. “Yes?”

 

The man adjusted the lapels of his suit jacket and huffed pompously. “So, I suppose we should start at the beginning. When did you girls first find out about Miss Jinsoul’s….condition?” He spat out the last word as if it were a piece of spinach that had gotten stuck between his teeth.

 

Jungeun raised her hand to answer but Haseul quickly cut her off by speaking into the microphone. “Jungeun, Yerim, Hyunjin, Heejin and I have known for about a year. Everyone else learned this a couple of months ago.” That sent the crowd into an uproar. Everyone exclaimed their surprise and outrage at the girls keeping a secret like that for so long. The man stood up and jabbed a finger at Haseul with surprising swiftness for a man his size. “Why keep a secret like that for so long? You’ve been putting people in danger!” His face was red and spittle flew from his lips.

 

Yeojin cringed, but Haseul didn’t budge an inch. She kept that same calm, neutral expression on her face. “We did it for Jinsoul.” The man didn’t look satisfied with that answer, but before he could reply with another outburst, Jiwoo’s mom cut in. “That’s enough, Stan. Let’s move on to another esteemed reporter, another question, yes?”

 

Another cluster of raised hands came up. Jiwoo’s mother pointed to someone near the back, a middle aged woman in a sharp suit. “Yes, Belinda?”

 

“How many people has Jinsoul killed?”

 

Jinsoul’s face blanched. Her fingers squeezed the edge of the table so hard Yeojin was afraid it might crack.

 

Once again, Haseul popped up to answer the question. “Jinsoul hasn’t killed anyone.”

 

The woman, Belinda, scoffed. “And what about the student that died last year? Coco Cherry? Ring any bells?” Haseul allowed the slightest amount of displeasure to appear on her face before answering. “That was the werewolf. Not Jinsoul.”

 

“A distinction without a difference. Are you really going to try to tell me that girl would still be dead if Jinsoul wasn’t around?”

 

Haseul shook her head. “I’m just saying you can’t hold her responsible. She’s not in control when the wolf takes over...I’m not even sure she’s aware. But Coco is dead, and that’s a tragedy. She was my friend, too.”

 

Belinda shook her head and pointed at Vivi. “You. Kahei. She was your best friend. What do you have to say about this ridiculousness?”

 

Vivi pressed her palms against each other and kept her eyes on the table. She edged closer to the microphone until her lips were nearly touching the cool metal of the microphone. She refused to look up. “She was my friend. But she did not want us to hold it against Jinsoul. She was forgiving.” Vivi put her hands on the table, one over the other. Yeojin was proud of her. Jinsoul didn’t smile, but she seemed warmed by the words.

 

Belinda sat back down in her chair, a sour expression on her face. Jiwoo’s mom ‘hmm’d’ and pointed at another lady towards the front. Her purple hair was tied into a bizarre three-knot style that looked more like it belonged in a sci-fi film than on her head. “Yes, Katelyn.”

 

The woman stood up and pointed directly at Haseul. “I have a question for you, Miss Cho. “ Haseul looked away from Vivi to focus on the woman, “You don’t exist. Not really. You suddenly showed up at Hogwarts two years ago, already in Hufflepuff. That shouldn’t be possible, not unless you were someone else before. You changed your appearance totally between your fourth and fifth year. And your name. And no one’s brought this up until now. I looked it up, and your mother has four children, all boys. Until you, two years ago. How does that happen, I wonder? Where did you come from? Who were you before?”

 

That got under Haseul’s skin. Her face burned red, and she was about to scream at the woman when the nervous looking professor cut in. “Hey, hey! We’re here to answer your questions about Jung Jinsoul. If you have questions about any of the other girls, they can wait until a later date.”

 

The woman harrumphed and sat back down in her seat. The professor mumbled something under his breath about a cut-rate gossip rag. Haseul looked as if she had just been punched in the gut. She looked around at the other girls nervously. Heejin rubbed her hand comfortingly.

 

Jiwoo’s mom glanced at her daughter with worried eyes. Jiwoo  nodded, and her mom continued. “Okay, any more questions?”

 

A thin man to their far left stood up and asked his question without waiting to be called on. “How do you know that it won’t happen again? That one of the other students won’t end up dead? Like you said, Miss Jung doesn’t have any control over herself while she’s in wolf form!”

 

Jungeun and Choerry both jumped to answer the question. They realized they were going to talk over each other and they awkwardly settled the order in a tiny whispered conversation. Choerry eventually acquiesced and let the older girl speak first.  “Me and Choerry have been taking care of Jinsoul for months. Not once has she broken free or hurt anyone under our watch. This is not an issue. We’ve made sure that she stays safe. If that’s just two of us, imagine what ten of us could do?” Her voice went from her usual cool confidence to something verging on desperate.

 

The man fired back with, “Yes, you’ve kept her away for this long, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen in the future!” Choerry stood up this time, her brows furrowed in anger. “Nobody can predict the future. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen tomorrow, but Jinsoul is not a threat. Not while we’re here. And we’re here to stay.”

 

Jinsoul’s eyes were edged with tears. Tears not because she was sad, but because she was so touched by her friends’ willingness to fight for her. Yeojin rubbed her back and smiled at the girl. “We’re almost done, Jinsoul.”

 

Jiwoo’s mom nodded patiently and then moved on to the next phase of questioning. “Okay, one more question and then we’ll move on to final statements from each of the girls. You, over there, in the front.”

 

The man she had indicated stood up, straightened his tie, and looked Jinsoul directly in the eye. “Can you give me one reason why I shouldn’t take my kids out of Hogwarts if you stay?” His voice shook with emotion. This was a concerned parent, not an enemy. Jinsoul bit her lip.

 

“I’ll give you one reason,” someone spoke. It took Yeojin a second to realize it was her. “Jinsoul is a good person who deserves to finish her time at Hogwarts without being bothered by others. She’s just like your kids, except she changes into a wolf once a month. And she has that part under control. So now it’s up to you to show your kids how to treat her with respect. Because even if she’s a werewolf, Jinsoul is also a human being.” Yeojin’s words were tinged with anger, but that didn’t make them any less truthful. She slid back in her chair and sighed as the man did the same. He didn’t seem comforted by her words. She had to admit that she felt a little bad.

 

Jiwoo’s mom, just as perky as ever, smiled. “Well, let’s move on to final statements for each of the girls and then we’ll thank them for their time. Miss Haseul, we’ll begin with you.”

 

Haseul straightened her back and looked over the crowd. “This isn’t right. You know it isn’t right and you’re going to try to do it anyway. I want you to think about this. I want you to think about what you’re doing before you publish your stories. I want you to think about who you’re doing it to. And then I want you to decide.” She looked down into her hands. “That’s all.”

 

“Miss Heejin?”

 

“Choerry can probably go on for hours about this, but Jinsoul is a good friend. She’s a good study partner and she helped me get through some of the roughest times in my life. She belongs.”

 

“Miss Hyunjin?”

 

“I trust Jinsoul and you should too.”

 

“Miss Chaewon?”

 

“I don’t know her that well, but it’s still wrong to expell her for a disease she’s been forced to live with.”

 

“Jiwoo?”

 

“That’s Miss Jiwoo to you! Just kidding. Jinsoul’s really funny. I would really miss her if she went away. That’s all.”

 

“Miss Sooyoung?”

 

“We can’t see it right now, but this is an important moment. This is where everything changes, if you let it. You get to choose how people see werewolf children now, and maybe a dozen years from now. You have that power. Please don’t abuse it.”

 

“Miss Yerim?”

 

“Jinsoul’s a lot of things to me. She’s a mentor, she’s a friend, she’s someone who listens to whatever crap I have to say and never says a word about it. She’s my best friend. My best friend.”

“Miss Yeojin?”

 

Yeojin stood up, to make sure the people assembled in front of her could see her face, deadly serious as it was.

 

“I know you guys are all thinking about your kids. You might be scared or worried about this news, but for all of that, Jinsoul is even more scared. Just look at her. She’s the same age as your kids. She could be one of them. Think about how they would feel if they came home to you and you treated them the same way you’re treating Jinsoul.”

 

Mrs. Jeon scoffed, but it seemed as if she was the only one not affected by the thought. A soft, worried murmur ran through the crew.

 

“Miss Jinsoul?”

 

The girl didn’t answer for quite a while. She wiped the moisture off of her cheeks and looked up. When she did, she was smiling.

 

“I don’t have anything to say, except thank you to my friends.”

 

Jungeun clasped her hand tightly and whispered something in her ear. The blonde chuckled softly.

 

“Okay. Miss Jungeun?”

 

She tossed back her head and shouted, “I LOVE JUNG JINSOUL!!!” She then proceeded to howl like a wolf. They all laughed at that, the tension now and forever broken, regardless of what came next.

 

“And finally, Miss Kahei?”

 

“Vivi, please. That is what my friends call me. And that’s all I care about.”

 

She looked at each of them warmly, from Haseul all the way down to Jungeun. She had been healed for a couple of weeks now, but this was the first time she seemed like she was ready to be with them in the way that they needed.

 

So, that was it. They had all spoken, they had answered the reporters’ questions, and they had made their final statements. All that was left was to see how the dice fell. It was out of their hands from now on.

 

Yeojin smiled, and they smiled with her. Nothing could touch them at that moment.

 

**EPILOGUE: A BRIGHT AND SHINING LIGHT**

 

But, of course, there was still some business to be taken care of.

 

Jiwoo ran into the lair, a piece of parchment clutched tightly in one hand. The excited smile on her face meant it could only be good news.

 

“It finally came! The faculty came to a decision!”

 

Sooyoung flicked her wrists and held her palms face-up to either side of her face. “And? Don’t keep us in suspense.”

 

“Sorry, Sooyoung! It’s good! They’re going to let Jinsoul stay.”

 

They all breathed a sigh of relief at that.

 

Haseul perked up from her spot on the chair next to Yeojin. “Any conditions? These things are almost always conditional.”

 

Jiwoo shook her head. “No, they just want us to continue doing what we have been doing. That shouldn’t be too hard. You can read it yourself, if you like.” Jiwoo handed the parchment over to Haseul, who read it carefully. When she was satisified that everything was in order, she smiled and placed the sheet down on the table in front of her. “You’re all good, Jinsoul.”

 

The blonde girl let out a long sigh of relief. She smiled and wrapped her arms around Jungeun. The two girls got lost in the other’s eyes.

 

Sooyoung pulled the Book of Animagi out of her bag and dropped it on the table with a thump. She crossed her arms and looked around the room. “So, now that that’s over with, are we going to do this?”

 

Jinsoul put her hands up. “Hey, it’s okay. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. You’ve already done so much…”

 

Choerry shook her head. “We’re not going to let you be alone out there. We’re your friends. Friends stick together. No matter what.”

 

There was a murmur of agreement among the girls. Chaewon seemed a little nervous, however. Yeojin pushed herself out of her chair to sit down next to her. “You okay, Chaewon? Like Jinsoul said, you can back out of this if you don’t want to do it. From what I hear, it is permanent. Pretty big deal. But I’ve always wanted a tattoo, haha.”

 

Chaewon smiled wanly. “No, I don’t have a problem with the idea. I’m just worried about what my Animagus form will be. I mean, we don’t get to choose. You know that, right?” Yeojin nodded, although she hadn’t. “What if I get something gross, like a snake or, I don’t know, a dung beetle? I’d be stuck with that forever!” Yeojin patted her on the shoulder. “Even a dung beetle would be pretty, as long as it’s you in control.” Chaewon blushed and gave her another one of those adorable smiles. Yeojin grinned. “You mean that?” Yeojin nodded. Chaewon wrapped her arms around her neck. It felt nice.

 

Hyunjin whistled. “Okay. So we’re really doing this. When do we start?”

 

Sooyoung smiled. “At the next full moon, ideally.” She looked around the room. “If everyone’s okay with that.”

 

Jungeun clapped her hands together three times. “So, we’ve got a few days. Sounds good to me. What do you think, Jinsoul? Doesn’t that sound great?” Jinsoul grinned. “It sounds perfect, Jungeun.”

 

Yeojin pulled herself free from Chaewon and sat down at Haseul’s side once more. She held up a finger while she dug through her bag. “Hold on a second, guys! I want to show you something!” She smiled when her fingers closed around the soft surface of her book. She yanked it out and held it above her head. “This is it!”

 

Heejin raised an eyebrow. “And that is….?”

 

Yeojin let the smile fall from her face as she gripped the book between both hands. “Um...I’ve kind of been referring to it as The Book of Loona.”

 

Vivi tilted her head in curiosity. “Loona?”

 

“Yeah, well, we’re kind of a club, right? We’re friends and everything--- I figured we should have something to call ourselves. Loona’s….Loona’s a good name, right? I just picked it because of the full moon and-- we all came together because of Jinsoul and---” Yeojin shook her head. Her mouth was running out of her control again. Haseul ran a hand across her back. “Breathe. We’re all listening.” Her voice was calm and soothing. Yeojin nodded and continued.

 

“Okay. This book is for us to keep track of our time together. What we learn and the memories we create. We’ll probably need more than one, actually. I’ve already filled out the first page with a poem-motto-creed thing? I’m not sure what to call it. But, I’d like to read it out, if you guys are okay with that? And then, maybe everyone could sign it, if you agree with it."

 

Everyone nodded.

 

Yeojin swallowed, and then she started to read.

 

WE ARE LOONA

 

No one’s life is perfect. We all have our own scars, our own imperfections, our own craters.

But we keep moving, we keep growing, we keep shining.

We might keep those impact wounds hidden or we might show them for the whole world to see, but we are who we are regardless.

 

Like the moon, we rise every night to face a black sky.

We pledge to illuminate it with our very being.

We pledge to be the brightest thing in the night sky.

We pledge to guide others in that darkness as we have been guided by each other.

 

Our craters are our beauty.

Our light is our gift.

This is our promise.

 

We are Loona.

 

When Yeojin finished, the room was silent. She gave everyone a shy smile. They hadn’t liked it.

 

The silence was broken by the sound of clapping from Sooyoung. After that, everyone started to clap in  cacophonous, genuine applause. Yeojin smiled. Haseul pulled her into a hug. “That was beautiful, Yeojin. You’re beautiful.”

 

Yeojin buried her face in Haseul’s shoulder, a bright, unrestrained smile on her lips.

 

Yes, she had found her belonging.

 


End file.
